I use followers quite a lot, but not out of necessity. I just like having them tag along for the travelling comments and as an occasional pack mule.

Nearly everytime if not all the time I bring lydia

I have Aela with me pretty constantly. I have her following me at least half of the time I play, probably more than that.

Depends on the situation, if I doen a job for the Thieves guild then I make em wait by the main gate for a hasty escape. But for open wourld exploration or any combat related stuff I keep em close, Kharjo has been with me from the start and has bested the best of warriors thus far.As for my evil Orc, he uses em for meat shields mostly and if they stand the test of time then he grants them daedric armor to join the ranks of my evil legion to rule Skyrim with an iron fist.

Constantly. I find them entertaining, and like trying to get the most out of them. I've run with several for the same character, just switch whenever I get bored / have a role play reason. So far Erandur is my favorite, both for role play and effectiveness (he uses staffs quite liberally and fairly intelligently; I prefer not to use them at all, so have plenty to hand out).

Only character I use it on is my mage, who's level 35 with only ~170 health. If I can't blast away my opponents, I need to have a meatshield.

I've generally got either Lydia, Uthgerd or Farkas following me about, so they can tank the badass enemies while I dance with the regular ones. Not wearing armour or using a shield limits the level of badassery you can successfully deal with, lol

Depends on what character I'm playing.

My battlemage ALWAYS has a follower.

My assassin has never used a follower, Lydia is still sitting in the breezehouse, feeling neglected and forgotten.

Never use followers. Used to use Fawkes in Fallout 3, but aside from New Vegas (where it's about doing their quests, for me), I found that the game is more fun without them.

I take Lydia, since she's my Whiterun Housecarl and lives at my house, I figure she needs to earn her keep.

Lydia is pretty much a beast and she keeps me on my toes to kill stuff before she gets a hold of it (darn kill stealer!). I'm only 10th level, right now (I only got the game a week ago) so I don't know if she levels with you or if I will eventually leave her in the dust. I even crafted a Superior ancient Nord sword for her to use. I don't want to give her anything *too* good though b/c as a Nord Warrior, I can't let a woman outfight me!

I use Lydia when I am in need of a pack horse, when I know I'm going for some intense dragon slaying/dungeon crawling.
Otherwise I don't use ducklings. Only my mage does, and she brings along Faralda because she just kicks ass and is Altmer like my character.

My character and Sven beast together. I give him my old armor after I craft ny own new armor. We both carry 2h. I like greatswords, he likes warhammers. We walk around like bad asses and [censored] [censored] up

they can help hold loot when you are carrying too much so yeah all the time

it depends on the quest, If it's an assassination I will prefer to do it alone, but for normal quests like retrieving something I use one!

200+ hours of gameplay with 4 different characters and I never use any follower.
Unless it's quest-related I never want to use follower, makes me feel guilty if they died or get hurt.

"M'aiq has heard it is dangerous to be your friend."

Yes, nearly always
Melee characters normally take an archer or mage along
Archers or mages take a tank
Assassains go solo
Only time I've killed one was when I had a melee character with Lydia, so I try to avoid having 2 melee characters together

I bring along Lydia. I married her for saving my life, many times in the early game. Now I have to keep her alive because she's my wife. This act by me artificially adds depth to a story that, by itself, is pretty shallow.

But I didn't use followers to begin with. They were too annoying the way they'd start combat when you were trying to be stealthy, and then die.

But once I got used to playing the game "solo", so to speak, I started to use them to make a story for myself. Still though, I wouldn't use one for a stealthy type of player-character.

No. They just aren't all that useful.

I have had Lydia as a follower since very early. I have made her Armor and Weapons. I recently found a good heavy pair of Boots with Muffle. She still steps on every single one of the trap pads, every single one, but at least she is quieter with her steps. Enemies no longer go straight after her from her footfalls.

I do not know when she learned the trick of sprint whilst creeping stealthy leads to a forward roll, but Lydia now catches up by forward rolling along the roads. The smirk on her face when she finally catches up seems to be a positive thing. it could also be as she is just clumsy (explains the trap behaviour).

I will need to use others, but I really like Lydia as a follower.

Since I got a mod that made followers more interesting (specialiced followers) as well as a mod to give them commands without having to start a dialogue with them, yes I use them from time to time. Unfortunately Lydia just yesterday was killed by a dragon so right now I am on my own again. But I guess this will change soon.

I leave them to wait at home. I find them a total pain. If my follower isn't killing my dog. The dog runs off after some bad guy and gets lost. I hate the friendly fire, the follower, the dog and the horse always jump in front of me and I end up killing them.

Never, really. It was fun at first to have Lydia along, but at this point I even avoid quests that require you to have someone follow you around. It tends to just wind me up. Doesn't let me do things my way and all that, which is often the case when you have someone along that acts solely on impulse.

I did, admittedly, plan to have Kharjo along on my Khajiit, but that's a plan yet to come true. Perhaps it'll be immersive enough that I'll let him stay.

The only follower i use is Derkeethus, my Argonian dosen't trust any other kind with his life

I almost always bring a follower, though not on my challenge char.
They're nice to have around, both for expanded inventory space, and to have something around that doesn't want to kill my char

Why would I take a follower with me if at lvl 48 nothing can possibly kill me... on Master .