How do you play with followers?

[258789553873]

I've never had much luck with followers. Normally I play mage and stealth characters, which means I rarely can use them at all. With mages, of course, you tend to accidentally kill them, and you can probably summon things that are immune to your spells anyway. For stealth characters, they just blow your cover EVERY SINGLE TIME, and honestly you're so op you don't need them anyway.

I've been attempting to play a warrior build, and I'm testing out a new difficulty mod, so I decided to make use of followers for once. Despite being a warrior though, that didn't go so well. I ended up killing both of my own followers accidentally with Fus (accidentally hit them with it while they were down). After losing two followers before level 6, I decided to just not bother anymore.

How are you supposed to play with followers without accidentally killing them? The only solution I can see is having a mod that makes them essential. Right now though, I can't really do that. I'm testing this mod without anything else installed so I can see how it affects the game without my perk overhaul and whatnot. I can't have anything that could possibly give me an edge while I'm doing this, which is why I have nothing else installed right now.

[Frostbite]

Only use i have ever assessed to followers was ''walking chest until i hit 100k gold for the first time''(though they usually have some other uses with certain mods). ♥♥♥♥♥♥ AI and clunky at best command ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ makes them unable to be useful.

But on a side note, if you give them a bow and delete their melee weapon through console commands, they cease to being a bootstrap, also they almost never miss thanks to their aimbot nature. Since using bows yourself is a nightmare with how slow the projectile moves, its the only way for you to make your followers useful, however mildly.

[Alucard †]

Followers only die if you hit them while they are bleeding out (tho knowing how buggy Skyrim is that might not always be the case but that's how it works or should work)

So avoid hitting them with anything when they are kneeling down and bleeding, enemies ignore followers in bleedout state (again this is Bugthesta so that may not always work)

Best pick are followers that scale with your level (there are few like the ones from Dawnguard dlc for example) they are insanely tanky you can use them as meat shields or aimbot archers like Frostbite said.

There is also a perk in Dragonborn dlc "Companion's Insight" that makes your followers immune to your damage during combat. You get it from a Black Book quest called "The Winds of Change."

[CrackeR]

Use EFF "Extended Follower Framework" and make your followers ESSENTIAL
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12933

You can also target your follower while in 1st person and open console then type: setav sneak 100 hit enter. Reverts back if you dismiss them though, so rinse and repeat. I am not promoting the use of the console, just pointing out one remedy for your follower stealth issue.

[SomeMMORPGplayer]

i kill them 90% of the time or they get killed by monsters 10% of the time

[Docsprock]

Also try to choose a follower who complements your build. If you are a sword & board, get a follower who is a mage, or an archer. If you want to be the archer, get a tank.

Stealth characters generally do not need followers. But for a mage, definitely get a tank. Just watch your area-of-effect spells.

[Frostbite]

Originally posted by Docsprock:

Also try to choose a follower who complements your build.

Thats not how Skyrim works, sadly. There is no such thing as ''build''(everything is just as lineer as they could possibly get, one OP ''build'' for stealth characters, one OP ''build'' for warrior, one OP ''build'' for mage, no alternatives, and thats just what you become when you get to 81 or whatever level with all the quests done) nor complimentary follower/''build'' pairing(AI is just so stupid to even be able to get paired with anything at all, there are only 3 switches; flee, ignore, fight). Wrong game friend. Or a modded one, which is not Skyrim either anyways.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by Frostbite:

Originally posted by Docsprock:

Also try to choose a follower who complements your build.

Thats not how Skyrim works, sadly. There is no such thing as ''build''(everything is just as lineer as they could possibly get, one OP ''build'' for stealth characters, one OP ''build'' for warrior, one OP ''build'' for mage, no alternatives, and thats just what you become when you get to 81 or whatever level with all the quests done) nor complimentary follower/''build'' pairing(AI is just so stupid to even be able to get paired with anything at all, there are only 3 switches; flee, ignore, fight). Wrong game friend. Or a modded one, which is not Skyrim either anyways.

You do realize that you can do more than these 3 builds by mixing it up?
-Spell swords exist that combine both the warrior and mage and they are viable even in Legendary.
-Stealthy mages exist (Yea it does work , Quiet Casting is OP shoot several fireballs at a enemy and they are still clueless where you are)
-Mage Archer (Aka Conjuration archer - Bound bow , no melee , use summons to keep enemies from getting near)

Game doesn't restrict you to just 3 specific builds aswell as you can make almost any mixup build viable / OP. Without mods or exploits.

And what Docsprock meant by suggesting a follower that compliments your build.
Is the fact that you should pick a follower that doesn't get in your way in combat depending on your build playstyle.

Melee follower to keep enemies at bay if you are Ranged/Magic
Ranged/Magic follower if you are melee and don't want your follower to also be melee and get in the way of your swings.

[258789553873]

If you're a mage, you're better off just using cojuration. They won't die to your most powerful destruction spells. And besides, they tend to be better than any follower you can have anyway. Also, you can have two of them at once, and if they do die somehow, doesn't matter, just summon more.

And personally, I've never gotten spellswords to work. Your stats are spread too thin, and you have no defense since you can't block. And no, I've never played a duel-wielder. I just can't get used to the rythmn of alternating attacks back and forth. Often I end up just putting the lightest weapon I can find in my left hand so I can swing faster with my right. And again, you can't block, which poses problems. The closest thing I've played to a duel-wielder is a two-hander. Yeah, blocking isn't very effective with two-handed weapons, but its better than nothing, and at least you can do a bash when someone tries to power attack you.

And yeah, you can mix things up, but at the end of the day, there's fundamentally three builds. Those that rely on stealth, those that try to be tanky, and then those that just try to blast everything down as fast as they can from afar. Honestly, its hard to come up with anything that isn't fundamentaly one of these three, no matter how they work. The closest I got was a stealth illusionist with conjuration and vampire lord form. Really though, she was more of a build that could just alternate between 5 different playstyles: a dagger assassin, stealth archer, illusionist, conjurer, and a vampire lord. Honestly, most of the time I would just play as a stealth-archer, and turn into a vampire lord if I got caught. If I didn't feel like fighting, I would just walk through a place with two dremora lords out and loot everything while they tangled with whatever was guarding the place.I ended up having to resort to that throughout the entire dawnguard storyline, since I couldn't use stealth with serana around, and I didn't want to accidentally hit her as a vampire lord, so I was stuck just watching my dremora kill everything, for THE ENTIRE QUESTLINE. Luckily, that wasn't my first playthrough of it.

[Alucard †]

Spellswords are a little tricky at the begining but get better the more you progress. Your defense comes from armor and heals like usual for a warrior. Key is to soften targets at range with your magic before they come close to you. It's not an easy "build" to master at first but you can get the hang of it and faceroll anything Legendary difficulty throws at you. Especially once you max your enchanting and your magic becomes free of cost. Also things like Vegetable soup synergizes hilariously well with this build to the point its borderline cheating.

Dual wielder deals insane amounts of damage in a very quick power attack bursts.
You can flatline a Legendary Dragon in 1-2 dual wield power attacks. Tho yea you cannot block but most of the time you won't even need to.

And yea Dremora Lord is basically "I win" button, especially for Conjurers.

The point is despite there being only 3 "paths" you can freely mix them up to get some fun and creative builds / playstyles and still come out on top. That's what i love about Skyrim almost any "build" you come up with can be viable.

[Docsprock]

Originally posted by Frostbite:

Originally posted by Docsprock:

Also try to choose a follower who complements your build.

Thats not how Skyrim works, sadly. There is no such thing as ''build''(everything is just as lineer as they could possibly get, one OP ''build'' for stealth characters, one OP ''build'' for warrior, one OP ''build'' for mage, no alternatives, and thats just what you become when you get to 81 or whatever level with all the quests done) nor complimentary follower/''build'' pairing(AI is just so stupid to even be able to get paired with anything at all, there are only 3 switches; flee, ignore, fight). Wrong game friend. Or a modded one, which is not Skyrim either anyways.

Well then, I will just apologize for using my 7500 hours of experience playing and stating what works for me. I will bow to your far superior knowledge of the game.

[smr1957]

LOL! Love it, Doc!

[Frostbite]

Originally posted by Docsprock:

Originally posted by Frostbite:

Thats not how Skyrim works, sadly. There is no such thing as ''build''(everything is just as lineer as they could possibly get, one OP ''build'' for stealth characters, one OP ''build'' for warrior, one OP ''build'' for mage, no alternatives, and thats just what you become when you get to 81 or whatever level with all the quests done) nor complimentary follower/''build'' pairing(AI is just so stupid to even be able to get paired with anything at all, there are only 3 switches; flee, ignore, fight). Wrong game friend. Or a modded one, which is not Skyrim either anyways.

Well then, I will just apologize for using my 7500 hours of experience playing and stating what works for me. I will bow to your far superior knowledge of the game.

What are you even doing right now mate? I just stated what Skyrim is, no need to start comparing your peepee with everyone, pointless.

Originally posted by ⎛ Alucard ⎞ ✟:

-Spell swords exist that combine both the warrior and mage and they are viable even in Legendary.
-Stealthy mages exist (Yea it does work , Quiet Casting is OP shoot several fireballs at a enemy and they are still clueless where you are)
-Mage Archer (Aka Conjuration archer - Bound bow , no melee , use summons to keep enemies from getting near)

''Oh look i used sword on one of my hands and spell on the other, instead of two spells on each of my hands, now im not a mage, but a SPELLSWORD!'' ''Wow, and now i used mace in one of my hands and ''turned the undead''(and failed %90 of the time because of the level scale ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥) with the restoration school, im now a PALADIN!'', if you take this as ''build'', sure Skyrim has endless builds. But it is by far, not what build actually means. Anyways, im not about lose my time arguing about ''builds'' in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game, if you are having fun what you do, then feel free to ignore me and keep doing it.

Think of me as an annoying missionary who tries indirectly and forcefully impose what a quality game should look and feel like by constantly rambling about things, otherwise you will only get angry because of my surface ''stupidity'', which is not what i stand for with this character deep down.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by Frostbite:

''Oh look i used sword on one of my hands and spell on the other, instead of two spells on each of my hands, now im not a mage, but a SPELLSWORD!''

It's not just about holding different weapon/spell in each hand lmao, but also investing in different skills/perks and mixing them up creating interesting synergies.

Originally posted by Frostbite:

But it is by far, not what build actually means

Yea well maybe you should "enlighten" us what build actually means instead flapping your mouth on how you won't waste time on us lowly peasants

Cause in every game where you get to put "points" in certain "skills" in a way that makes your character stronger. Putting them in specific order to gain most synergies to make your character even stronger or to find different and itneresting ways to play still is and always was refered to as "builds".

Skyrim is no different in this regard you have like 18 skill sets with different perks in each one of them. You can make BUILDS in this game that either follow the typical linear path or mix things up a bit forcing you to play differently.

EDIT: Tho seeing your post history of doing nothing but complaining on forums about Skyrim in every thread you can. Actually shows that you like to waste time so i'm waiting.

Enlighten me what in your eyes a "build" is.

[Kamatrip]

companions and mage are not compatible unfortunately XD

[Frostbite]

Here we go again. Damn it, oh well.

Originally posted by ⎛ Alucard ⎞ ✟:

Originally posted by Frostbite:

''Oh look i used sword on one of my hands and spell on the other, instead of two spells on each of my hands, now im not a mage, but a SPELLSWORD!''

It's not just about holding different weapon/spell in each hand lmao, but also investing in different skills/perks and mixing them up creating interesting synergies.

But it is like that in Skyrim. It just means which weapon you are holding in your hands. It doesnt exactly changes how you play(perks too are linear, just one possible perk distribution in destruction tree, one possible perk distribution in one handed blade tree for example). You can go full mage, or you can go full warrior, there is only one mage, and one warrior, which are what you become when you reach 81 level with all the quests done and all the items earned. Or you can be a SPELLWORD and use half of these two final states. But its still the same thing you see. Instead of using two swords, you use one, and instead of using two spells, you use one. Nothing changes at all. Other than your damage output distribution(also there is no armored or magic resisted enemies in this game either so it makes damage distribution thingy ten fold pointless. Some rarest mobs(like atronachs and they are the only ones other than dragons) are invulnurable to just one type of magic, thats it. Armor doesnt even exist in the game). Not to mention there is literally no need or opportunity for you to play as a spellsword, because you can just either slash the feck out of them as a full warrior or burn the feck out of them as a full mage much faster than you could do as a SPELLSWORD anyways.

What build means by its definition in video game developing process, is that you get to choose one of the possible ways of manifesting your own unique play style from given options. There are two most common parameters, one is unique gameplay changes and the other one is total number of possible combinations(which is tricky because its usually limited by our own imagination, so what developers usually tends to do is that they try to distinguish their build layout by making each possible build's gameplay as unique as possible). You usually should excel in at least one of this two things if you want your game to have a proper build layout for character developing aspect(as an example to one of the best build layout in video games, i could give Guild Wars 2, almost no competition).

For Skyrim to have builds, it should have really well branched out skill trees with actual commitment to one playstyle(all the destruction perks are for casting spells for example, no other useful perks for hybrid classes like spellsword, monk, tempest, shaman, warlock, druid and many others). And the general gameplay should be completely re-made for making each of these builds feel viable and unique enough to be actually enjoyable. Skyrim is not like this sadly, if it were i wouldnt be talking right now.

But this of course doesnt mean that you cant forcefully roleplay your build by illogically preventing yourself from using the easiest meant-to-be winning ways in an attempt to make a miserably ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game, more fun than it could ever hope to be. But this also doesnt mean that Skyrim have builds. It would just mean that you are forcefully roleplaying as a spellsword, pretending as if it actually changes how you play the game compared to a warrior character or a mage. Which is perfectly ok, and i personally dont understand why its so hard for you people to accept and/or understand this.

Also, i have never called you people ''lowly peasants'', i called the game ♥♥♥♥♥♥, which is only stating the obvious fact. Have a good one.