So I finished the companion quest line and married her, have a home in whiterun. I'm a sneaky archer/assassin, also level 100 smithing. Should I give her light armor or heavy armor? I can't decide between making her a dragonplate armor or dragonscale armor (she has a higher level of light amor). I have a set of dragonscale myself. I want to be stealthy and I want her to be stealthy as well but at the same time if I get detected, she has enough protection in a melee fight. Anybody have any idea? Thanks!

I had her set up in glass for the longest time and she could hold them off for a while in melee but she rarely even got to that point for me. When I eventually got to Dragon Scale armor for her it was the same. Just deck her out in a fortify archery ring and ammy and she should stay at range as frequently as the space allows. As a backup I gave mine dual enchanted daggers that I improved to legendary, as well as a just in case the parts I couldn't fortify Archery with I put the best health fortifying enchants I could. Seems to serve better than armor fortification enchants. Anything that gets into melee with her dies quickly due to her or me softening them up quite a bit before they have a chance to get that close. That's if they even have the chance. So I'd go with light armor, good enough protection for her and she can help carry all the better with less of the burden of heavy armor. It may not be the most efficient use for her but it's served me just fine.