Followers have never seemed useful at all to me. Their only real contribution to the game is from the humor value of stupidly running into traps or being launched into the sky by giants when they moronically rush them in melee.

I was willing to put up with it for the Fallout New Vegas followers because they each had a quest, and I don't mind Serana for her role in the Dawnguard main quest. But I can't see why people bother with followers other than that.

Why do you all like followers, and how do get more use out of them?

I don't use them.

I hear they're a nightmare for assassins and thieves. Sneaky characters in general.

I like knowing that my character isn't alone - I like the marriage mechanic for the same reason. Skyrim reall does a lot to help fight the loneliness that I feel plagues the earlier games.

But there are plenty of other reasons. Help in combat, the attachment to one NPC or another, roleplay, and so on.

They are invaluable meat shields for my characters when starting in Master/Legendary difficulty

The only useful follower i have ever had was Mjoll.. she has never died on me and never gotten in the way after 250+hours with this current character im using.

Meat shields and pack mules, and yes for stealth players they are a hassle so you have to choose carefully.

They make for good companions on those lonely and frosty Skyrim days. Plus, meatshield comes to mind.

Roleplaying definitely. One if my Thalmor characters has J'zargo as a follower and he is dressed in Elven armor while I wear Thalmor robes. I RP that J'zargo is a Thalmor soldier who has been assigned to protect me,

In new vegas, followers basically killed everyone for me. Same can't be said for Skyrim. Sometimes I just like to take a follower along for a sense of companionship, but honestly, they are stupid.

The problem I have with the meat shield argument is that I would only need a meat shield for a stealthy-type character. At low to medium levels the best combat spell is Frenzy, which is best used from hiding. Archers get similar use out of stealth. And followers are too darn stupid to be valuable to a stealthy character.

If you are playing a melee fighter a follower will just get in the way.

It's because she's essential.

They're annoying for stealth characters if you don't have the UFO mod because they'll just attack anything on sight.

I'm a combat archer. Am I excluded?

Must be the same reason I love summoning magic in fiction. Pets, minions, allies. Must be a godComplex

Of course not. But for me personally bows go hand in hand with stealth. It reduces the chances your enemies will get into melee with you.

ahh yess i forgot about that

Nah not IMO. I think archers should be like mages: if an enemy gets too close, back up and just keep shooting at them while retreating enough to not take any damage.

That's why whenever I make a new character one of the first things I do is get them in with the Dark Brotherhood and give my follower the muffled footwear, and since I always employ archery and stealth Faendal is my follower of choice, plus he gets to inherit my gear when I get upgrades. Eventually we become a duo of instant death to almost anything we go up against.

That works fine for easy enemies, but what happens when you see a saber cat at low levels or a Draugr Deathlord and friends? Wouldn't you rather get kill on your first shot? Poison use is also way easier with stealth because the chance of missing is way lower.

I find followers to be very useful.

As a pack mule that has infinite inventory. When exploring a dungeon and my own inventory gets nearly full, then I just find the closest container, dump everything I found in the container, and then direct the follower to loot said container.

As a way to remove the stolen tags off of items. I like to use one of the barrels in Haelga's Bunkhouse after you complete Svana's quest. What you do is place stolen items in a container of an npc you are friends with, then direct your follower to take the items from the container. Presto, no more stolen tag.

As a lock opener. Some followers can be directed into opening even Master level locks, for those times you don't want to be bothered with the mini game. I know for sure that this works with Marcurio.

As a distraction in battle. Just let the follower charge into battle first while you hang back and lob arrows/spells/position for a sneak attack. Helps to give followers enchanted muffling boots.

To set off traps. Like the tripwire ones and you don't feel like attempting to badly jump over it/disarm it yourself but still get hit by rocks anyways.

1. Protection, someone to run behind when healing.
2. Reinforcement, the right follower can devastate enemies (Marcurio especially... he's a WMD).
3. Cargo. Especially in Dwarven ruins.
4. RPing. My characters prefer to marry people they spent time with. Like followers.

I like having someone else to talk to, even if it's usually a fairly one sided conversation, and it's usually just me still talking to myself.

You haven't seen how I play then.

There's a lot of bashing with my bow-hand if they get too close. Normally, I'm so accurate that they don't get close enough, but if they do, I rarely run. It gets intense.

I like the company and mods help with some of the AI problems.