I have Lydia as my companion, she has a bow, and a warrior should be able to use that. But, I put a staff of lightning with her and she uses that as well. When she gets to a certain distance from enemies, she puts away her bow, then charges at the enemies using the staff, then changes to her sword (or dagger) when up close. Now, I love the fact that she changes from ranged to melee weapons according to distance and that shows good tactics, but should she be using a magic staff being she isn't a character along the lines of a mage?

To be clear, this doesn't bother me really, it makes the game fairly dynamic, but the ability that any weapon fits any class of companions just seems odd.

I didn't even know this. I never take companions, but I might on my next characters.

Do they wear anything you give them too?

yeah i have lydia in full orcish with a flawless elven battleaxe

I tried putting Dwarven Armour on Lydia, and well, it didn't show her wearing it. Maybe that was just a PS3 bug though.

I always felt staffs (staves?) were created to be usable by most people who don't have knowledge of the arcane arts. Making magic more accessible to everyone. A lot of mages use it for convenience.

Staffs don't get any bonuses from any magic perks. If you don't want her to use it for the sake of RP, or whatever, just don't give it to her. :thumbsup:

Yea, they wear the armor you "give" them. If you take away any other armor/weapons that is not the default armor, and give them to her, she will be shown wearing/using them. I have Lydia wearing Dragonscale armor with a Daedric sword and bow.

[img]http://oi43.tinypic.com/34yb686.jpg[/img]

They automatically wear anything that is better than their default equipment. So if you gave her a robe, she wouldn't wear it.

This only partially true.

Every time I take a mage follower with me, they never use the weapons I give them; instead they stick to casting their spells.

I've seen Lydia cast a lighting spell before, it confused the hell out of me. "What the hell Lydia, was that you!?"

I believe they can but some prefer not to.

The only weapon that she won't use is my crafted Ebony bow, i gave it to het but she love to use her weak bow for range lol.
I gave her Ebony greatsword and it become her primary melee weapon and wear it at all time but not the bow.

im on PS3 it works fine

I actually gave it to her to carry for me, since I was near my weight limit and I am a mage. If she uses it, it really doesn't bother me. Also, it isn't a matter that I want her to remain along the lines of her class, I think it just looks odd, that's all.

Think of Magic Staffs as shotguns. They have a limited number of charges and can be used by anyone. Once depleted, you have to reload (recharge) them. Besides, using a staff that shoots out flame isn't much different then using a sword that sets the enemy on fire, or a bow that steals their soul. Don't have to be a mage to do those either.

OK, I posted earlier something (again, this doesn't bother me) that my companion, Lydia, who is a warrior class, will use magic staves if I store them on her. OK, I found another great staff but wanted to keep using the one I have been using and stored the new with her. Now, in a fight, she dual wielded both of the staves I stored with her and I did not mod or use the console command in the game to get this. It looks so funny, especially since she still has the quiver on her back..

[img]http://oi41.tinypic.com/2nsmn3q.jpg[/img]

That's bonkers.
It bothers me how your followers have no specialization.

Well, as I am playing more now, I am wondering if this isn't a glitch, otherwise, the tactics my companion can use are interesting to say the least. Lydia can go from using a bow, to dual wielding her sword/staff or DW both staves to then using shield/sword in battle depending on her distance. She conjured a Frost Atronach with her one staff, then used the lightning staff taking on three bandits. She then attacked with her shield and sword when she got closer.

I was posting about this a few days ago as well. The follower ai adapts according to what they have in their inventory and the circumstances at hand. It is pretty cool to say the least. I just make sure that their gear is adequately equipped with charges.

They do have specialisations. All Followers have 4-5 skills (most 4 or 4+Sneak). The Follower will use the weapon with the highest base damage. All Housecarls, like Lydia, have the One-Handed skill but will always use a Two-Handed weapon if they have one in their inventory that does more damage than their 1h weapon (which in the case of their default weapon is every 2h weapon in the game). Staves seem to be a special case of weapon in that "magic is better".

The fact that Lydia uses a weapon that is far weaker than her sword says different to your affirmation I highlighted here. Her bow and sword are exponentially more powerful than the staves she carries for me, but she uses them all interchangeably in battle. I see tactics more than preference.

its irritating to some though cuz i have mage follower who can 2 hit kill giants with spells but i give her anything even iron dagger she'll equip it u should be given what role u want them to play in combat 2h is great 4 lydia not for arcena(i know i spelt her name wrong)

Nuts! This is ridiculous! How is it that you can get her to dual wield staves, but http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1290426-lyidaaaaa-dual-wield-foot/ dual wield swords? Ugh Lydia is frustrating.

You didn't read my post to the end. And some of the Staves may look weak but are, in fact, much stronger than you give them credit for - a sword that does 30 damage per hit has nothing on a Staff that does 8 DPS.

They do, of course, use tactics. They use ranged attacks when appropriate and melee when they can. I've even had Lydia try to raise corpses with a staff I gave her (but since this was at lvl 20 the staff was too weak). But this doesn't change the fact that they will use usually the best weapon they have (for what it's worth, Housecarls have both One-Handed and Archery so they are equally skilled with the bow and 1h).

That said, what they equip does bug out sometimes. My Lydia sometimes fires off a couple of shots with her Ebony Bow before switching to her default Hunter's Bow. There was also a period, after she was disarmed by a Draugr, when she couldn't figure out what weapon to use and literally equipped something different in every fight until I took everything off her and gave it all back.

Heheh, that's pretty funny.