I have been lurking in various forums trying to find info about Companions, and I've been finding some conflicting information.

First, do companions level with you?
If not, if I let my companion go and then re-hire them well they then level up to my level?

If I fire my companion for another and then go back to my original companion, will he or she still be carrying the weapons/armor I gave him or her when we parted?

Why do companions (like Lydia) sometimes disappear for hours in real time and then randomly run up and join you? I mean,if she wasn't dead why did she ditch me. I'm not fast... I don't even have a horse!

Finally, I'm playing a dual-wielding warrior (who sometimes heals himself, though my healing isn't great as I rarely need or use it). Any recommendations for a companion for a strictly melee character? I've been using Lydia, but am about to try Erandur as he just offered me his services (I didn't even know he could be a companion until he offered). While Lydia's Bow and Melee has worked well, I'm interested in seeing Erandur's destruction magic in play and hoping the priest will throw me a few heals in combat. I was thinking Marcurio the Merc Mage might rock as well.

Do "harder to get" companions like Aela the Huntress or Cicero have better stats or any other benefits over the easier to get ones like Lydia?

Thanks!

I've been checking my companions out in the console via getav, and from what I can tell, companions do not level with you (or at least their health doesn't) but there is a wide range of stats from companion to companion, roughly matching the status of where you acquire them; Lydia, one of the first you acquire, has a health of 158, while Jordis the Sword-Maiden (Solitude's housecarl) has a health of about 520. Falkas is middle of the road, with about 350 or so.

Well crap that blows. I'm attached to Lydia.... now I'll have to upgrade

If you open up the console, select a companion with your mouse, and type "setav health 250", that will set the companion's health to the new value. I think this should upgrade them. Same can be done with magicka. You can also type in "getlevel" to see their level and "setlevel 30" to change their level, and they will level up accordingly it seems (I just noticed that health and stamina of Janessa did increase when I changed her level, who knows if she gets knew skills or anything). It's probably safer to just use the setav health/magicka commands. ...if you're on the PC

They do level with you (or at least the one I do does); as in getlevel gives a number that shows his actual level going up. I have a mage, Marcurio, with me and his total magicka has gone up as we level up and at least one of his skills went up during that time. I didn't see any movement in his health during that time, but I had raised it in the console when I first hired him so that may have affected that.

I read in another thread that Lydia doesn't level with you. What the player said was her stats weren't "recalculated." But I don't know exactly what that means.

Can anyone confirm this? UESP says,

"A follower's stats are determined based on the level the player is at when he or she first enters the zone that the follower is in. Once generated, the follower's stats do not increase at all. For example, Lydia is usually one of the first followers players will have access to, and most players receive her at a lower level. As such, most players' Lydias will have low stats for the entire game."

Now, I'm on the 360, not PC, so there aren't any ways I can work around this, and I received Lydia at level 3, which if the above is correct, will make her as squishy as strawberry jam fairly shortly. :bolt: So can someone confirm or deny whether followers do level up with you or not please?

Wow that's kind of a bummer :sadvaultboy:

I'm sorry to hear this because I'm also attached to Lydia and because I tend to stay loyal to a companion I really like but she has been dying a lot more lately and I wouldn't put a person through that IRL so I'll just pick the right time and send her back to the Jarl. There have been others offering their services so I'll give someone a try. How is the She was pretty strong fighting a dragon. How about the He seemed pretty strong too.

:tes:

Don't forget there's a choice of 44 Followers, not including annoying mutts that never Please continue, my good sir. (and count as "extra" Followers anyway). I'm actually surprised at the number of people that seem to stay with Lydia since she is almost always the second or third Follower you will come across, and the second free one. Perhaps Bethesda wasn't clear enough in the NPC dialogue options when someone can become a Follower. What I'm getting at is that there is a LOT of choice for you and the more quests you complete the more Followers become available. There's no reason why you couldn't, literally, replace your Follower every other level.

When you "fire" a Housecarl, or tell them to Wait so long that they get bored and go home, they will return to your house, or the keep if you don't yet have a house, in the Hold they belong to and will still have all the same items and equipment when you decide to drag them around again. I cannot be sure, but I assume it is the same case for other types of Followers.

I have never had a Follower get lost "for hours", but they do occassionally run into pathing issues and can get stuck on rocks. In dungeons they can also be hit by traps and find themselves dragged/thrown/pushed into walls (swinging blade traps most often). The best solution is usually to Wait or transition to another area, either by going through a door or by fast traveling. If they really are getting lost for hours, and you have not told them to Wait somewhere, despite multiple transitions, then that is a bug that should be reported. In a similar vein, I'm not sure what has happened to my Whiterun Horse since I haven't seen him for a while, despite multiple fast travels, but he did have a penchant for attacking Giants and Dragons so...

Erandur doesn't have Destruction as one of his skills. He has Restoration, Conjuration, Speech and Alchemy. If you're quite happy to heal yourself, I would try Onmund or J'Zargo as they both have the interesting combinations of Destruction, Illusion, One-Handed and Heavy Armour. If you do need someone to heal you, I would go with Marcurio because he has Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Conjuration and Sneak (there are others with this combination of skills, but they are not so easy to get and are locked behind quests).