She totally blows my cover every time. She rushes in, gets pummeled, and leaves me hanging. I've even told her to wait many feet back, and as soon as I fire my bow, she runs in.

Is there another follower that actually follows me.

Yeah I've had the same thing happen with a different follower as well.

I think that's just how they work. You're not allowed to fight on your own :shrug:

Perhaps one of the thief class ones like cisero

There are alot of better "Thane folowers".the best can be obatined if you purchase the house on Windhelm.It's about 25.000 gold.But the "character" or "her",is much better than Lydia.

Followers svck if you're stealthing, assuming that's what you meant by blowing your cover. And nope followers all have the same behaviour generally, they'll try and engage enemies if they detect them, regardless of you trying to sneak.

I think "The Unbroken" should be changed to "Arrowcatcher" - stupid NPC ALWAYS blocks my shots.

I seem to have the opposite problem and, as a result, find myself using followers very rarely.

For instance, I was playing a sneaky bow user and whenever I knew I was going into somewhere with a lot of tough enemies, I liked to bring a tank companion along with me. Farkas is an example.

I'd give him the best two handed sword and some healing potions and give him an enchanted ring or necklace if I had one that was helpful and would want him to rush in after I fired off a sneak shot. He'd keep them busy while I continued to pour in arrows.

Instead, as soon as a foe dropped a bow, he would pick it up and start using it. I'd take it away from him, then he'd just pick up another....

So, I tend to just quest alone.

When I became Thane of Whiterun Lydia accompanied me to Mount Anthor. In her very first battle she succumbed to the dragon there - pathetic.

I married Aela who his hard and never gets in the way. However, she does have a tendency to disappear when a rumble kicks off sometimes.

My Lydia is always late. I run in and pummel the goons, and she gets stuck behind a cliff or something like that. I'm probably gonna go solo, but I can't handle the bosses on my own.

isn't Aela already married? Cuz I was already bothered by advlterous and scandalous thoughts of her.

Yea, followers are kind of the anti-strategy of this game. Your best bet is to get a companion that fights like you.

Assuming that you're not trying to sneak, however, I imagine that you can avoid the problems of companions jumping in front of you during a melee by choosing followers that use ranged damage techniques (assuming that such things exist, of course; I don't use followers).

I also tried this by bring Aela along to a dragon fight. I was hoping her and I could pour arrows into the dragon until it was dead, but sure enough, there she was with dagger in hand......I even made sure to upgrade her bow and give her plenty of arrows before setting off too.

So yeah, back to me rarely using companions.

Followers have their level set when you first meet them, and it never changes (which seems to be either a bug or an oversight to me). If you were to skip over doing what's required to get Lydia until after acquiring all the other Huscarls in the game, she would indeed be the highest level one you have. But, most people get her early on, so before too long she's getting 1-shotted by virtually everything you run across; I had the same issue with a different low level follower. Personally, I hope this changes in a near-future patch, since sometimes I like to get one person early on and stick with them throughout the game.

Agreed they always seem to dance right in front of my shot even with time slowed down. I've just given up on them all together.

All of the fighter types do that. You need a ranged specialist if you want them to "hang back". But yeah, I hear ya, they're all idiots. It's like "Hello, arrow nocked here? I already let one go, do you think I'm just gonna hold this one here? Plus, duh, we're in stealth here, uh, SNEAKING. Oh, and BTW, do you REALLY have to consistently put yourself between me and the nearest target, making it IMPOSSIBLE for me to snipe?" I just chalk it up to (rightfully) over-enthusiastic bodyguard/fighters. If you've PnP RPG'd with "muscle-heads", you'll know that REAL people make those same stupid charges ALL of the time.

I sold her to a draugr for lunch, no she just gets lost in the woods randomly and never saw her again

Cheers

This is why I don't have companions anymore.

No, they're all idiots that stand in doorways with a stupid look on their face.
As much as i love this game, it bugs me that the companions aren't any better than something a modder could've come up with in their spare time.
If they'd have stories and personalities i wouldn't care since we can tweak them with the CS, decent voice acting and writing will be harder to comeby however....

They seem to try and compliment your fighting style (not always successfully) depending on what you're doing. Since you were using bow and arrows, she was gonna charge in and attack. I tend to charge headlong into things with both swords flying and she usually hangs back with her bow.

Ever taken friendly fire? I was using Aranea and we were fighting some cave monster things, and suddenly I die with a giant [censored] ice spike through my chest. I would've been mad were it not so hilarious.

you have to ask them to wait 'cause unfortunately they're designed to attack anyone you mark as an enemy. Then they want to fight you 'cause they got in your way of a hit. It's just how they work <_<

Before that she had done just fine though, such as on the Companions quest you do with her. Both of us used our bows well and she only went to melee when engaged directly.

There is a big burly dude named Thonnir from Morthal who is supposed to help you in a cave. If you don't do that mission right away he follows you around. BUT he follows you too closely so he bumps into you all the time, I mean he shoves you out of the way. You might be looking over a shelf of books, picking up item on a table, and he will come plowing into you moving you bodily away from whatever you were looking at. HE IS THE WORST! All Thonnir does is bump into you and whine, and since he bumps into you so often he often gets hit...which means he starts fighting you or your other companion. About seven times after a battle Thonnir would start fighing me because he got in my way. Meanwhile Lydia would come to my aid and she would alway thrash him til I would use a calming spell on him.

Good followers are called "Yourname's zombies, dremoras, dragon priests and atronachs".

Sure, they can't carry stuff, but they are also perfectly disposable, and hey, the mage-type zombies even hang back and blast with magic instead of tanking everything with FACE.

So much truth to this. Flame Atronarch is always welcome when I go dungeon crawling. I really only use companions to carry [censored] for me