If it's not a bug, what's the logic behind this?
How can a follower sharing yours adventures, fighting Dragons and Giants ends up being weaker than a random bandit?
The worst is that it's probably not because of the difficulty of having to program the same follower at different levels as their level match your the first time you meet them.

Up.

Are you expecting a developer response or something?

Once you meet a follower, his/her level will remain the same.

I'm not sure but if you open the console and type in "resurrect" his/her level will be refreshed.

if so don't hold your breath..

one way it can be fixed and that's if you have the game on a certain platform and adjusted by the community

I think they scale the same way as your enemies do. Their lvl becomes locked after your first encounter. Same thing happens when you enter a dungeon for example. That dungeon will remain the same lvl for the rest of the game, just like your followers will after your first encounter, so in reality they actually lvl the exact same way, which is not at all.

You are the dragon-born, an epic hero. This means that you learn exceptionally fast, and can go from being a fresh noob to the greatest warrior in the world in a few months. Nobody else in the game can level the way you do: they all keep the same skill set they had when you met them.

Also, I suspect followers don't level in order to discourage people from keeping the same one for the whole game.

I'm tired of mine dying, and I'm tired of dragging them back from Sovengarde every time. Faendal died one too many times. So I got a new one. She helped me kill a dragon and was dead 5 minutes later when she ran into a trap. And I don't mean a hidden one. I mean the walls that shoot fire. It's not like she could miss it; it was happening throughout the battle. I think it killed most of the bad guys, in fact, who completely forgot the day they installed it. You know, to kill people who ran past.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one in Skyrim with a brain. Sigh.

Yeah, it is a bit of an issue for those who like the initial companions, while they level up their stats do not.

There is a workaround on the PC.
Dismiss the companion, then while facing them open the console and click on the companion.
Type disable and the companion will disappear.
Type enable and they will return with their level and skills updated. (apparently)

If you aren't playing on the PC then you are currently out of luck so cross your fingers and hope it gets fixed in an upcomming patch.

Put Daedric Armor on those biotches - it helps.

People say they don't scale, and I'm on Xbox, no console for me to tell one way or the other... but at lvl 31 my Lydia fights side by side with me taking out giants and the like without a problem. Sure, I have her in ebony armor.. but she survives pretty well, unless surrounded by 3 bandit marauders, yeah that'll do her in... but personally I dont' see how she doesn't scale. I met her at lvl 5... tell me if she was still level 5 how could she take even one hit from a giant and not rocket into the sky?

not an expert, just making an observation with some common sense... she's tougher than when I met her.

I read on uesp or w/e it's called, the wiki place, and on the follower page not a single person could agree on whether or not, or how, they scaled.. it was like 10 pages of nothing but conjecture from every pc playing console jockey on the internet.. so... yeah... fact is no one knows for sure if they scale or not, or how.

from what i have seen and the research i did they lvl up with you but not the stats meaning they will do more dmg for example but they wont get more stamina magicka or health
im playing on xbox atm my follower (faendal) doing great dps got him at lvl 6 im 20 atm

it helps to give him gear and weapons according to his class

sadly no reset on console

theres hoping for patch for more pew pew

That's stupid if this is true. I really don't like it when they promise freedom in a game and then do freedom limiting things like take steps to prevent you from using the same companion through the whole game. I thought the choices were supposed to belong to the player, not to the developers.

I believe true freedom belongs to those on a PC. Us console folks get a game. A great game (when it works). But it's a game that is limited in potential compared to the PC version. I wish it were otherwise.

Yes it is a bug.

On PC using "getlevel" command and "disable" and "enable" commands can clearly shows followers were intended to level and scale along with the player.

I hope it's gonna get patched, cause it's those kind of bug which makes me wait before buying a game.