I've heard some stories of issues people are having with some stewards.. so before getting my own I decided to seek the insight of the forums. I'm looking for a follower which isn't buggy, won't die, and is a decent defender. So make a case for your favorite

PS - Alea is out, I always marry her.

I usually go with Illia. She is unusable as a follower after you dismiss her the first time, but if you make her a steward she has all of the steward options and helps defend the house. It's the only way to keep getting use out of her.

Yep. And, it doesn't bother me if she sleeps with my wife.

If you have Dawnguard installed, Celann, Durak, and Ingjard at Fort Dawnguard can all become stewards, and they don't have a level cap. They'll scale all the way to level 81 with you, so they're probably the "best" stewards from a pure gameplay standpoint. They'll always deal a lot of damage and will be very hard to kill while defending your home.

I have used both Ingjard and Beleval from Dawnguard in two of my houses and the Riften housecarl Iona as the third.

Uthgerd the Unbroken. I never used her as a follower anyway so it's a good place for her (instead of sitting in a corner at the Bannered Mare). She's already wearing steel plate armor. I gave her enchanted/tempered weapons. As a bonus, you get the key to her house in Whiterun.

I spent far too much time thinking about who's going to be my steward and spouse with Hearthfire. I tend to start a character with certain quest restrictions so there are limits to which follower I have access to during my play-thru. There are followers that I will never make into steward because I like having them on my adventures. The steward can still follow you but I prefer to have them defending the house.

Vilkas. Easy tasks and a good fighter.

I use Rargal thrallmaster lol, all I did was use a few simple console commands and he has all the dialogue and everything and he is a perfect steward for my vampire character.

Yes, I used her too, and Sven for my other home. Uthgerd is rough around the edges, trying to pick a fight whenever I walk past. It's like being married. LOL. OK, not my wifey but I have this friend who's wife is...

After a few hours of playing I'm ready to kill her off. I'm almost ready to go back to a prev. save and let her go. There should be a way to dismiss your steward.

Replace her with Illia. Seriously. Illia has no annoying banter dialogue. It's usually "Good morning", "Good afternoon" and "Good evening" which are all perfectly appropriate. Everyone else seems to yammer on about some subject or another. Usually something specific to their character or else the city/town that they're no longer living in. eg. "Riverwood seems agreeable enough, for a Nord village." Yeah, well you're not in Riverwood anymore, Faendal, so can you shut up about it please?

I agree, Uthgerd does get annoying.

Because of the spouse glitch with the kitchen wing, I acquired Proudspire Manor and moved the wife and the kids to Solitude. I supposed Uthgerd could have an accident while following me. I don't need a steward anymore now that no one else is living there.

QUESTION: If I recruit a housecarl from somewhere to the Blades, can I recruit that Blade to be my steward? I imagine stewards fight in their 'default' outfit, and becoming a Blade would upgrade that default for most NPCs.

Yep, I tried that with Iona, who I had recruited into the Blades, and she stayed at the house in her Blades armor.

Perfect, thanks for the quick reply