Hi all,

Been playing this for just about a month now and really loving this game. My first Elder Scrolls game also. A few newbie questions -

1. Do I really need to have more than one house? I already have Breezehome which works well, especially with the blacksmith right next door. I can now buy a house in Riften but it's another 8000 which is a lot. Being a thief type sniper character I now wish I had got the house in Riften first anyway.

2. Do followers increase in levels/skills to be on par with me? I've had Lydia for a while and she seems to be keeping up so that's good. I have been giving her better gear. Also how many lives does she have? She goes down a lot and I think she died but always keeps getting up. Wish I could do that! She has died a couple times but I have been cheating and reloading the last save, heh. I also just started to notice that it appeared she got detected and attacked before I did so her sneak skill may be lower than mine.

3. Do the dead bodies ever get picked up/moved/vanish? Seems not which kind of svcks. Alvor died in a dragon attack on Riverrun and his body has been laying on the path behind his house for days. Went back to my first mission and the bodies inside Bleak Burrow Falls were all in the same spot. Would be nice if they turned to bones or something and some skeevers or goblins or something eventually moved in and took over.

The quests are nice but seem to be too easy in the way it leads you around by the hand exactly where you need to go with the little white arrows. I would like to have to do some work in searching around trying to find the next objective. I know I can turn it off and have a few times but knowing that it's there I always just turn it back on. Thanks.....

Welcome! Congrats on discovering the game, good stuff, isn't it? At some point, one of the senior members will give you an official welcome with a fishystick.

To answer your question:

1. No you don't need more than one home. Some people find secure storage and never even buy a house though I prefer to play with a home base. Also, if you haven't gotten the Hearthfire DLC, consider picking it up. It lets you buy land and build a configurable house, tons of fun.

2. I'm not sure whether follows level - someone else will have to help you there.

3. The dead bodies do get picked up eventually but if you enter and leave the area repeatedly, the countdown keeps resetting. It's pretty tough to stay away from some place for an entire in-game month (like Riverwood or Whiterun) so it might be better to just move the bodies. I've done that with limited success.

I don't know which quests you've done but quest-lines can be pretty involved. That's when you do a series of quests each of which is a requirement for the next step in the series. Generally, the game does tend to help you out with the arrows. I'm on the Xbox so I don't have a way to turn that off. At least the arrow only shows up on-screen when you are basically within visual distance of the objective.

Good luck and enjoy.

2. Most followers level with player up to a certain point. There are some exception that don't have level cap. Followers of course have only one life but the game has mechanic that prevents followers dying constantly. When followers health drops near zero, enemies will automatically ignore him/her temporary.

3. Bodies should clear when cell resets. Dropped items however will remain, this is a rather serious bug in the game. The Unofficial Patches fix this, among many many other things, if you're on PC, you should install them.

1- You can have more houses if you want, it depends on you.

2- Followers level with you. They don't have "lives" lol, she's only able to be killed if YOU kill her.

3- Alvor is particular doesn't delete. You need to be away from the cell for a while so that the game can clean up.

... and I found you a fishy stick: http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

Not true. Followers are set to be ignored by enemies when they get down, but they still can be killed by a stray arrow, traps, area attacks etc.

Welcome!
1) you can have as many or few houses as you like. As you level up, the cost won't seem so much. If you are staying in Riften for a while, then buying the house could be worthwhile. You get the well rested bonus sleeping in a bed you own, but it could be cheaper just to pay to sleep in the inn.
2) Followers level, and most level up to a certain maximum. Check out followers on uesp if you arent averse to some spoilers. Lydia maxes at level 50 so you have a way to go. Followers will drop to one knee when their health is low,which makes enemies not attack them and so not be killed. As has been noted, you can kill them - this can happen accidentally especially with AOE spells. Plus if the follower is in line of fire between you and the enemy, even if they are kneeling, they can be killed in the cross fire. Plus they can be killed if they get poisoned, and the poison effect continues even when they kneel. I've lost followers in both these ways, and I also reloaded.
If you are a sneak sniper, you might want to try Marcurio as a follower who is good at sneaking. He is a mercinary in the inn in Riften. But he does cost 500 coins. Different people prefer different followers, so by all means stick with Lydia if you like her.
3) already answered.

1) You don't need another house, but if the Riften house fits your RP better, then buy that house and move your stuff out of Breezehome.

2) as others noted followers lvl up to a cap. What i generally do is give them the best armor or weapons possible. Generally speaking they will have better armor than my PC.

Just incase you don't already know...don't give your followers an area effect staff or scroll.

Look up the thead about followers, everyone had their own favorite, but some of the reasons why are explained in that thread, plus peoples experience with said followers.

I generally turn off my HUD, on 360, but that also turns off everything else. You then have to know your health by "feel" and the heartbeat. I pretty much know most of the road's by heart and I look to the map as if it IS a map in my characters pouch. JMO but if you are constantly following the arrows, you don't learn the roads as quickly. And yes, even for my Archer characters, the only times I turn the HUD up or on is in stores, Inn's or the like where I really don't want to take the chance of stealing something.

3) Some caves, bandit camps etc do respawn more enemies if left unvisited for about a month (in game time). But there are no goblins... there are orcs (but they're not necessarily enemies). There's also Falmor, who i guess could be conceived as a sort of cave goblin, but in actuality they were once "snow elves" who (overtime) adapted to life in caves.

The games a blast, it has endless replay value and there's tons of stuff to do. Good luck, have fun, and welcome

1. I've finished the main quest without buying a house.

2. Their level increases, but only in skills that they're focused on. Lydia's sneak doesn't go anywhere fast. Followers are "protected", meaning if they die once, they go down for a few seconds and NPCs ignore them while they heal. If you, or an AoE attack, hits them while they're down, they die. (I've actually seen a follower doing more damage than me before).

3. No.

And no markers is just as annoying as markers - this being from a different game (which also happens to have a far smaller world).