Valiant Lydia died trying to follow me on paths only a PC can travel. So I recruited a lioness in Riften who showed some potential. Together we freed a very lovely spawn of vileness. Against my better judgement, I sent my lioness away to further my crusade, as advancing the scheme of this hell-spawn seems to be the only way to rid this world of her debased kin.

Can I send her away for a while and then go find her when my abilities match the task that she represents? I would at least like to clean up some unfinished business in about 20 different locations....

Taranur Stormwatcher

_Out of character now.

Can Serana be dismissed and found later when I am higher level? If so, where would she be found?

If I do this, will vampire/related creature attacks continue at the same rate?

Will the vamps keep levelling, or are they static?

On a related question; Do Armored Trolls respawn? If one dies in my service does Gunnar (?) keep training more? Or is there a limit to how many can ever exist in-game? I never thought that I would want an Armored Troll as an ally. But I was a Skinny KId. Give me my cross-town bruiser as a BFF!

Also, I am open to unsolicited advice. But keep in mind that this is my first play-through, and that I identify as and play as Good whenever possible (drives my better-half nuts I am sure).

There are some times when Serana can't be dismissed while following, but you'll have to be more specific as to where you are in the Dawnguard main questline before I can tell you if she can.

Serana is a designated quest follower for certain parts of the DG questline, during which time she'll start (or continue) to follow you whether you like it or not. You can try to dismiss her during those quests, but she'll just refuse and keep following anyway. The rest of the time it's optional to have her along, in which case she'll agree to part ways and go home. It sounds like you chose to join the Dawnguard, so "home" for her is Fort Dawnguard once she turns up there.

If you don't want her following you then just try to dismiss her like you would any other follower. If she agrees to that, she'll go back to the fort. If she doesn't, that means you're stuck with her at least until you finish whatever quest is currently active in the DG questline.

However, as far as I know ditching her as a follower when it's possible to do so will not forestall the beginning and/or escalation of vampire attacks and other unpleasant stuff that happens as a result of you getting to whatever point you're at in the main DG questline. Those things will likely happen whether you have Serana with you or not and no matter how quickly you get around to finishing DG; I don't think you can put them on hold just by letting that questline hang for a bit while you go do other stuff. Enemies will probably level up just the same, if they are supposed to level with you then I don't think the game is going to care whether you are leveling up by doing DG stuff or leveling up by doing other things.

I don't know about the trolls, if they're not named and not unique NPCs I would assume that they just respawn as "new" trained trolls back at the fort. But I never got around to using one so I can't say for sure. I've got to remember to get one the next time around, cuz I kinda have to agree with you that having a troll as a combat buddy would be pretty cool.

Moth Priest done. I am supposed to meet him at Dawnguard. But the only reason I want to go there is to hire a Troll.

I see this may get complicated. Horayyyyy!

The next part in the main DG questline, after you meet the Moth Priest back at Fort Dawnguard, includes some concurrent quests that will give you Serana as a follower whether you want her or not. If you currently have her as a follower and can dismiss her now she should go back to Fort Dawnguard and be there when you return later on to talk to the priest and continue the questline. You might be able to go there and get the troll without starting the next quest but I'm not sure - it's possible that the priest and Isran are right there waiting for you when you enter and a scripted scene starts that you can't really back out of without starting the next quest(s). I really don't remember how that bit played out.

So I'm gonna say, if you want to get rid of Serana temporarily and not continue with DG right away, you might be better off dismissing her now and not going back to the fort yourself until you're ready to continue the main questline. Or you could just save before walking in the place and then see how it turns out, if you get stuck with advancing to the next quest and don't want it just reload the save, dismiss Serana, and don't go in yet and save the troll for later.

Edit: also, when you do finally go back to Fort Dawnguard and WANT to talk to the priest to advance the questline, keep this in mind (from UESP):

Not sure how common this bug is, but IIRC I had to speak to Dexion first despite the quest objective/marker directing me to Isran, otherwise the rest of the dialogue did bug out on me.