How many followers is too many?

[Gengar]

So I'm done with all the main quests, and now I've decided to spice things up by doing a "lots-of-followers" roleplay with my character. I downloaded the Amazing Follower Tweaks mod which lets you have up to 15 followers or so and built up a nice little team. So far I have Uthgerd the Unbroken, Serana, Derkeethus, Teldryn Sero, and J'Zargo following me.

It's certainly changed the game in interesting ways for me, especially from a roleplay standpoint. I find myself creating whole backstories and personalities for these characters and imagining how they might interact with each other. It's all been very fun.

Problem is, I seem to be addicted to followers now, and I keep wanting to add more. The team I have is fairly big as it is, and any time anyone even looks at me funny, they absolutely DEMOLISH them. I barely have to lift a finger in battle any more, which is cool in its own way, but I don't want the game to get too easy. Still, I can't help but wonder what it'd be like to have a small army with me~

So, out of curiosity, how many is too many for you? What's the biggest team (if any) you've had? Did it enhance the game? Was it more trouble than it's worth?

[Unionhack]

I had 7 at one point but I also had the Warzones mod which means MASSIVE OVERWORLD BATTLES. Suddenly 7 followers isn't much of a handicap when 30 imperials are charging you.

I normally only go with 3 humanoids and my dog now, though, maybe adding someone temporarily to my main group every once in a while.

[BetaB17]

Considering I'm on console, thus any followers beyond the limit I gain from exploits or glitches.. I can only really speak well from a vanilla view. To me, number largely depends on the skills that follow. I notice that Serana and other mages may spark fights with other followers.. something that is both hard to prevent and stop. Another thing in mind is travel.. or rather.. traveling through dungeons. If you have 7 npc's crowding behind your back.. odds are you may get stuck in a doorway or make things rather cumbersome.

So to say, I set my max at 3, Serana, DB Initiate, and Blueberry(Riekling). Nice thing is, the Initiate is always the closest to me while the Riekling tends to be slow. It works out for me seeing as it fits my style and desire for support rather than a ragtag bundle of overkill In contrast, I can understand the need for multiple followers if you have the proper mods that allow you to face such overwhelming odds. If I could fit myself into your scenerio.. I would say 4 would be a comfortable mix, after all if you ever feel the need to add more when the time calls, there's always the option of conjuration

[Nord85]

My biggest squad so far has been me and two followers, namely Vilja and Lydia, then Vilja and Jenassa. At Adept difficulty, that was a tad too much already. Especially Vilja-Lydia combination was devastating, when Vilja acted as an archer and Lydia tanked. Anything less than five enemies was a cakewalk. With bigger bandit and monster bunches, though, there were still good fights to be had. I'd imagine that at a higher difficulty setting things would have been harder. The ladies weren't that nice to have around when sneaking, though. As my favoured playstyle has a heavy sneak-archer/mage slant, I found that indoors I would have been better off on my own.

On the other hand, it was certainly more fun to wander around, as Vilja held with the other followers brief conversations that were rather well done and amusing. So, it's a toss-up. In the future I think I'll stick to one follower max, except for Civil War battles, where I might employ max four of them to watch my back.

[Varyag]

Since I play console, the max number of followers I've had is three: Anska, dog and...can't remember who, but regular follower anyway. That didn't go well, Anska and the rest kept fighting each other so I my 'sona had to dismiss the dog and the follower and go on just with Anska.

Shania, a dunmer lass and only one to finish Dragonborn-quest, currently travels with Teldryn Sero and a riekling.
The riekling is actually very good with bow.
Most of my chars go with one follower or none. Malandor, for instance, works best alone (followers tend to ruin his sneak). Only when facing tougher dungeons (like dwemer ruins), he asks somebody to come a long.

[Finn Wolfshorn]

My last character (Breton/Forsworn witch) used to travel with a party of three comprising her husband, Cosnach, and any two of her coven sisters (usually Aranea Ienith and Madena of Dawnstar whom I made a follower with AFT) - a powerful combo, but dragon fights still were a challenge on legendary difficulty with Deadly Dragons and Dragon Combat Overhaul. It was a lot of fun to roleplay her relationships with her followers (especially hubby Cosnach, who almost felt like an extension of the player character in the end). Gameplay-wise, I felt three was a manageable number and not too overpowered either, but with any more it would have got boring because they end up doing all your fighting for you which is, well, lame. (I forgot, we had a riekling tagging along as well while we were on Solstheim, but we tended to lose him in the heat of battle.)

My current one (Bosmer assassin) has occasionally travelled with followers for roleplaying reasons (mostly Interesting NPCs; Gorr the gladiator was an invaluable help on low levels!), but I find I'm more in control of combat and thus more effective playing her when she's alone (Varyag saying about the same above makes me think this is specific to stealth characters). At present she has no follower but her dog, Meeko, and I increasingly find myself having him wait for me outside dungeons because I'm getting more immersed in the game when I'm on my own without a convenient meatshield.

TL; DR: roleplay-wise, have as many as will fit into the story you're telling to yourself; gameplay-wise, one is enough (or more than enough).

[Raynil dralas]

Generally I find 1 follower to be too many. I hate followers, they just get in the way and do dumb stuff and talk nonsense.

[Unionhack]

I love followers. They add an interesting dynamic if you put some effort into it.

[noobishlord]

Since I play stealth most of the time, even one follower is too many. Their stealth AI is downright horrible. That's unfortunately bled out to my non-stealth characters, I still go at it alone.

[Varyag]

Break a record while doing the Ironbind Barrow quest: Shani, Teldryn Sero, Riekling, Beem-Ja and Salma. It caused some lagging with Xbox, nearly froze the game. Definently too many followers.

[Gengar]

Indeed, I agree about gameplay-wise one to two followers max is the best, and going it solo ultimately gives you better control (especially for stealth characters).

Still, for my playthroughs I largely let gameplay take a backseat to immersion and roleplay, so I often try things that may not be the "smartest" way to play the game, but for me are the most flavourful. Case in point, I tend to use armour and weapons that I feel my character would like to use, rather than just going for whatever has the strongest stats.

As for my followers, I've now added Jenassa to the team. However, I learnt that AFT actually maxes you out at 5 active followers at a time. Had to make the hard choice to swap out Teldryn Sero, as I had too many mages as it is.

And today's session really let the followers shine, I bumped up the difficulty and we tackled two dungeons with Dragon Priests (one of which was Ironbind, which got very crowded in there, heh), followed by an epic and extremely tough dragon fight that took a LONG time to kill even with everyone wailing on it. With the equipment I had on me at the time, I don't know that I could've taken him on my own, so I was glad to have the help!

[Unionhack]

I've never had as much fun as I've had with the follower mods. I like party-based games and having help in combat when 30 dudes are running around makes a battle feel much more lively than just everyone hacking away at you and you slicing them up one-by-one.

[Mod-Loving Wood Elf]

I think there's equal fun to be had with or without followers. Going no-follower isn't really lonely, it's just the default - and taking on hoards of baddies at once while alone is quite the thrill. The way I've seemed to play is that I'll go for a while on my own, and then pick up a follower (vanilla game follower like Lydia, mod follower, travelling mercenary, dog, whatever). Then the game completely changes. After a while I spice it up and get another follower. Then another. And another. Even with Warzones, four followers is about the max I can handle, and at some point I just dismiss them all and decide to go solo again.

And thus the cycle goes full circle, and it all happens again. Switching between going solo, having a single follower, and having a small army at my disposal has always been a way to make the game more constantly interesting and varied.

[dzio]

In my case it all depends on a type of character I'm currently playing. My stealthy characters always fly solo and my mages or warriors usually take someone with them. Never more than one though. A bigger team makes the game way top easy and the AI is not good enough and everyone ends up getting in everyone else's way.

[Dohva.]

Switching between going solo, having a single follower, and having a small army at my disposal has always been a way to make the game more constantly interesting and varied.

Totally. That's what I do, as well. Sometimes my characters get sick of their friends and go at it alone. Its also a nice way for those that have co-dependency problems to realize they can handle things on their own.