Am I the only one who HATES followers?

[Jygalagg]

I only dislike having them when playing a stealth type character.
I like them as a Mage though, and indifferent as a warrior

[Leilah]

I can't stand followers. They always get in the way, and they say things. At some point I guess I'll make a character who takes along followers for a more realistic rp, but with my present character, I haven't even wished that I'd had some help anywhere along the way.

[Evil-i]

To be fair, I think some of Bethesda's patchwork has improved Follower AI, especially in the realm of pathfinding.

As for using Followers effectively, you really have to recruit one that meshes with your playstyle, rather than one who behaves in a way that wrecks your strategy. For me, Annekke has been as close to perfect as I can hope for. Light armour, one-handed Sword & Board, and she's pretty damn good with a Bow as well. (A Chain Lightning-casting Mage would eff my game up completely. Too much collateral damage, too much panic.)

Stealth-wise, I can't say that Annekke is in a habit of ruining it by rushing ahead to initiate a battle. She may charge ahead, but only after the enemies have become hostile and appear as red targets in the compass bar. Even then, she prefers to hang back and Bow-snipe them before they come into melee range. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you are the one who's in control if you play well. You have to maintain stealth and get the first shots in. If you blunder around and allow enemies to discover you at a distance, you can't blame your Follower for jumping in to protect you.

[BunBun299]

Something that occurs to me. I've always like Followers in this game, though got pretty annoyed with them in Oblivion. In Oblivion, they all died, way too easily. I don't have the problem in Skyrim. While there has been the occational accident, for the most part, they can survive and kick ass in most fights. And part of that is likely that I can now change out their inventories at will. Every heavy armor using warrior I can forge and enchant a full suit of Ebony armor, and a daedric sword (just a matter of personal taste, but for me, Dragon gear is reserved for me and my spouse). Every light armor using archer, I can pick a suit of glass armor off of a Thalmor and enchant it for them. All this upgraded gear really improves their survivability. If everyone who has trouble with them going out of their way to give them better gear like I do?

Also, on the stealth side of things, with my stealthy characters, any time I actually want to clear a room with my dagger, I'll just tell Mjoll or Lydia or whoever I have with me to wait a chamber or two back, do my thing, and run back to them should I get caught. That just seems like common sense to me. When stealth fails, run back to the warrior whom I brought along to be my body guard, don't ask them to be sneaky.

[Durnehviir]

The only problems I have with followers is that they get there torch out when sneaking.So what all of you said.

[Lymond]

I find followers helpful early in the game. They help you carry loot and more importantly serve as distractions when attacked by dragons, giants or other tough enemies. Technically I guess it's me attacking the giants but I have to take them out first or they will interfere with my mammoth hunting.

Later in the game they can detract from the game but I still take my followers out on adventures from time to time for a sense of companionship...and partly out of a sense of guilt for leaving them home alone all the time.

[Dohva.]

^^ I find it rather funny that such a sense of guilt exists for these npcs. My characters will often switch between their bffs and husband Onmund. It gets him out of the house to brush up on his magic and besides, he does such a good job of taking care of the kids. I feel bad sometimes when my characters are like "Well, I'm off! Good-bye husband, have fun taking care of the kids while I go slay dragons!".

I agree that your playstyle is the key to having success with followers. They rarely break my assassin's stealth and she usually stays well hidden even after everyone has gone to battle. When I first started playing Skyrim, my followers all died. As I improved in playing the game, just like Bun Bun said I learned there are things to do that keep them alive...such as improving their gear, etc. That does make a difference. My followers have the best gear afforded to them and they usually get scrolls, staffs, potions, even food and gold for their services.

[snapple]

I hate them

[Evil-i]

^^ I find it rather funny that such a sense of guilt exists for these npcs. My characters will often switch between their bffs and husband Onmund. It gets him out of the house to brush up on his magic and besides, he does such a good job of taking care of the kids. I feel bad sometimes when my characters are like "Well, I'm off! Good-bye husband, have fun taking care of the kids while I go slay dragons!".

I agree that your playstyle is the key to having success with followers. They rarely break my assassin's stealth and she usually stays well hidden even after everyone has gone to battle. When I first started playing Skyrim, my followers all died. As I improved in playing the game, just like Bun Bun said I learned there are things to do that keep them alive...such as improving their gear, etc. That does make a difference. My followers have the best gear afforded to them and they usually get scrolls, staffs, potions, even food and gold for their services.

Exactolutely. Or is it absolactly? My Followers always have better gear than what I have. I can use my human intelligence to work through sticky situations, but Follower AI needs all the help it can get.

[Toki Wartooth]

I typically like to play stealth so followers don't work well with me, but today for some reason I decided to take Lydia out for a spin of cave clearing. After slaughtering all the inhabitants of a cave we exit out the front of the cave and Lydia turns and says "wow a cave. I wonder what's inside. " I was done with followers after that.

[Unionhack]

I love followers, myself. Makes the journeys a little less lonely. Plus it makes for some pretty awesome combat situations, especially if you have a multiple followers mod like me (check out the blog in my sig, I have like 5. xD Large scale battles in the Warzones Mod + 5 followers = a lot of fun).

[Mr.Argonian]

I only use followers for role play purposes. Such as my priestess of Mara was honoured to be named thane of Riften, so she took Iona with her. Or my necromancers wanted to teach Brelyna a bit about the forbidden dark arts.

[CreeperX]

I don't exactly hate them but yeah, I get your annoyance.
Many of my characters are sneaky and stealth + follower = disaster. Although my first character developed this nice tactic for using Lydia as a distraction and meat shield while he himself just sneak killed everyone when they were too busy fighting Lydia. Eventually though he switched to Cicero who works much better with a sneaky character.

In the end though, I rarely use followers since they tend to be a poor match to my playing style.
Yakov: Has been happy to travel alone since now he can happily use wide area effect spells without a care in the world. He even ditched his stupid Thrall who was always running out of magicka and insisting to fight with his fists like a retard.
Asul... got seriously [&@%!] with Serena since there's that bug (or annoying game-mechanic) which makes her hinder your Vampire Lord ability. He might eventually get another one though. Just to fool around.
Oceloth: Sneaky one. Absolutely refuses to use followers.
My Dead is Dead character: Also a sneaky one. Doesn't dare to use followers since they'll probably just get him killed.
... actually I only have grand total of 2 active characters who use followers. Both of them are warrior types. I have noticed that Marcurio is an excellent aid for my axe swinging Altmer. He knows to stay back and aid me from the sidelines, always choosing the proper spells. He's pretty much the only follower I'm actually attached to. Serana is great too. Just... not with Asul.

I agree that playstyle is the key factor in deciding whether they are a fun aid or not. Or roleplaying.

[Nova]

Alright, after playing most of the Dawnguard questline I have started to like followers. Serana is awesome!

[Jeancey]

I always despise followers... But then again I always play a stealth character. I can see how having a warrior type following to "tank" for you as a mage might be useful, or a healer type follower if you are a warrior. But for me personally... I hate them

[Karatekid5]

I normally don't have any problems with followers. However, it is pretty annoying when you are trying to do a sneak attack, they run into battle on sight, and they immediately blow your cover.

[Alphabetface]

I always end up killing my followers by accident.... or sometimes on purpose. But really, they get in my way more often than not. I enjoy playing one of my characters as stealthy as I can, and in general, I just enjoy doing my killing on my own. When it comes to trying to gain experience and whatnot, it annoys me when my followers jump in and kill an enemy off when I'm trying to kill them in my own way. The only thing about followers I really do like is having them serve as pack mules. I'm a hoarder, so having someone to carry all my stuff is pretty neat.

[CBR JGWRR]

Drem yol lok. Greetings.


Read these:
http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=28949
http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22487

[Avron the S'wit]

Don't worry, CBR - our new member got the low down in our Welcomes and Goodbyes thread. A welcoming PM is always a nice gesture, though. Back on topic!

[Gbaji]

I agree that not all play styles are suitable for followers. My next character will likely be stealthy, and accordingly I probably won't have much use for followers. My current character, however, benefits greatly from having a stalking horse, and now that I'm keeping a journal, I can create all-new dialogue and expand on my followers' personalities.

[Theificka]

I personally hate followers, mostly for the same reasons as yours, if they had done a better job at follower stealth and cooperation, it might just be worth it...

The only thing I like about followers is that they will get out of your way when you are trying to leave a cramped space, but this is offset by the fact that they are terrible at staying away from your shots.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Alright, after playing most of the Dawnguard questline I have started to like followers. Serana is awesome!

She can also be annoying.

I was chopping wood to craft Dwarven bolts with, and she said "Yes, what do you need?" At least 100 times.

[Shadowscale]

I do like having followers with me but since i play a stealth character they always end up setting off traps/getting me kiled!

[dragonfett]

I find followers helpful early in the game. They help you carry loot and more importantly serve as distractions when attacked by dragons, giants or other tough enemies. Technically I guess it's me attacking the giants but I have to take them out first or they will interfere with my mammoth hunting.

Later in the game they can detract from the game but I still take my followers out on adventures from time to time for a sense of companionship...and partly out of a sense of guilt for leaving them home alone all the time.

I stealth based Khajit had nightmares of hearing the roar of a dragon coming to hunt him down before I started having Lydia follow me around. Now I love having followers. You just need to know how to use them properly and what they are good at and what they are not good at.

[Travalanche]

I hate Followers too, I didn't even use Serana either. They really are pointless to have when you have a weapon that does 500 legit damage and can kill dragons in a few hits... I guess they could make it die like a second faster but still, they get in the way sometimes and it's just not worth the hassle imo.