Hi,

I never used followers in Skyrim but recently I've been planning to. I've been avoiding followers because I dislike their autonomous behaviour while in combat. Basically, I'd like followers to avoid fighting unless 1) an opponent hits them first or 2) I command them to attack a specific target. Put it differently, instead of vanilla's bodyguards, I'd like mercenaries who remain alert but passive unless attacked directly or told to attack somebody.

Is there any mod that changes vanilla followers to behave that way? I checked the two most popular follower mods (UFO and AFT) and they don't seem to provide that functionality. Failing that, is there any modded follower that can be customized to behave that way?

Thank you.

Better Stealth AI for followers

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16531/?

Stealth Kills for followers

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37277/?

...something else to consider...some of the "smart" followers have fairly advanced (read: passable) combat AI options. As long as you can get used to their face (or just mod it to your liking) they are worth a try. I vaguely remember having certain mod which allow "tanks" to taunt enemies.

Have fun with your game.

I am trying AFT now and it will do what you want ....sort of. You can "shout" at your follower to stand down and let you do the fighting. But i know what you mean. Vilja (companion mod) can be set to do exactly what I like and that is she stays out of the way unless you are down to very little health (losing the fight).

My own Oblivion follower mod (called: The Lady Said No!) I made her so she would always dodge and move out of my way as I would move forward and attack in combat, this made her very unobtrusive in combat. And I gave her options for doing as I described the above for Vilja (companion mod).

I am considering making my own mod for a K9 Follower with similar features. I probably will use whistling sound effects combined with the shout system to give commands to the dog to back down or to attack and such.