I just got married, and it seems that I can't ask my wife to come adventuring with me. I thought that you could? That seems like the most obvious feature in the world to me. If I can hire random mercenaries to follow me around... and I can get married to NPCs that I like...

2+2 would suggest that I could convince my wife to follow me around. Am I missing something?

Some of them can. I know the Dark Elf in the College can, and Jenessa in the Drunken Huntsman also can. Both Dark Elves, though. The Elder Scrolls Wiki shows who can or can't, you just gotta marry the right one.

You can marry a companion, but not anyone you marry can be a companion.

That's pretty silly, considering it only takes changing one variable to make someone a potential follower. I just used the console instead. Bethesda sometimes blows my mind with the short sight.

Makes sense, why would your housewife even want to go with you as you clear bandit caves, hunt ferocious beasts, slay dragons, and explore dangerous ruins?

And why would you want her to come anyways? What is she going to do, hit them with a frying pan?

This. I mean, it all depends on who you marry - and because of that, some wifes are eligible to come with you.

But my Ysolda? She's a merchant. What exactly is she going to do? I'd rather have her sitting at home earning my gold and making hot meals for me. Not to mention that if she dies (likely), I'm unable to get remarried (at least until/unless Bethesda fixes it). The gold she earns me in a few days is enough to go hire the nearest sell sword sitting at the inn....I'd rather go that route.

1. I dont think it should matter. What if I just want to go for a walk? I should be able to ask her to come along. The idea of a follower is that they follow you around, not neccesarily that they become your killing partner.

2. Also, no, she wouldn't use a frying pan, she'd use the sword I would give her once she was a follower! Good grief.

The sellsword that you can marry, ironically.

I think it makes sense that not all spouses are companions. I mean if a peace-loving farmer married an adventurer, would they want to go out and fight dragons with them?

Maybe the Radient AI causes this. I like it too, not every spouse would want to adventure over an entire nation.

You guys remember the Adoring Fan? What did he do whenever a fight started? That's how you represent a non-combat follower. Not by simply making them ineligible to follow you at all. If I'm strolling down the river with my lovely wife and a wolf comes out of the bushes, then she should cower or run away (if she's not a fighter) and let me handle the situation.

I worry about some people's willingness to just rationalize the shortcomings in the game instead of coming up with easy, rational ways to expand it.

Don't settle for what Bethesda gives you just because that's how they did it! This series only gets better when people come up with new, better ideas.

Except they did it on purpose, which is why it's pretty obvious that it wasn't just an oversight on their part, so no need to 'worry' about our, "rationalizing the shortcomings," we'll be fine.

Doing it on purpose doesn't mean it's not shortsighted friend. There are better ways to do this within the code that they already have, I'm simply wondering why they didn't. For that matter, I'm wondering why are you opposing a new option that would take zero effort to change, reduce your options in no way, and add a few more options for everyone else?

Did you consider that you could also give your spouse simple instructions if they were a follower? Like ask them to wait for you somewhere? Or did you consider that you can give them stuff, like jewelry, weapons, armor etc if they were followers? There are lots of ways to use the follower functionality to pretty much double what you can do with an ordinary spouse.

I cannot see any rational reason for opposing the idea.

Camilla is not one I would take with me on adventures, or Ysold for that matter, but Annekke, she is awsome, just a shame she is already married, I need a dragon to attack the settlement she comes from

Shows what you know. There's a lot more to it than "one variable". Ever made someone a companion in Oblivion? You need to change... confidence, responsibility, AI packages, factions, scripts, quest info and most of all, add dialogue.

Played Skyrim yet? Don't have to do any of that.

You can't always get what you want, bud. Maybe she doesn't want to travel with you lol

Yeah I agree, it was silly of Beth to not make all spouses "followers" when you married them. I myself married Senna, and found out I couldn't do a damn thing with her, except bum some money and get her to make me a meal. You cant take her anywhere, cant change what shes wearing, and since they don't have any real dialog you cant even talk to them.

Yes! Thank you! I was beginning to worry that I was the only that thought marriage could stand to be a little deeper. Goodness. Even if the spouse is a non-combatant, just making them a follower would do wonders. Strangely enough, though posts above might make you think otherwise, the spouses at least have the follower dialog options. I made Ysolda a follower after marrying her, and she had everything set to go, including carrying my stuff.

It's really such a simple thing to do that I wonder if Bethesda had intended to.

Except she's not a follower, she's just some chick you married

It's not that hard of a concept to get, clearly you married someone who wasn't right for you

Next time marry people who you are more compatable with! I.E. people who like and are willing to follow you around places

Yeah I used the console to make Senna a follower, but getting her to wear something other than her default monk's robes requires the console as well. Not to mention stuff she has tends to disappear if you tell her to stop following you and go into wife mode. I gave her an enchanted daedric dagger with life/mana steal to help make up for her lack of combat worthiness, but told her to go home while she had her ebony bow as her current weapon. The next time I got her to follow me, the daedric dagger was no more, annoying to say the least.

I don't even know what to say. Judging by this thread, I have totally misunderstood the concept of marriage in this game. See I thought you were supposed to find someone you like, get them to like you, marry them, and then do things together. That was pretty much the impression I was under.

But it seems that you are actually supposed to marry someone that says they like you, but may or may not actually give a damn, and then not do anything together at all but take money and a free meal.

If you married a someone that isn't a Companion or a Follower such as Lydia, then you'll have to use console commands to enable her to follow you.

Things change once you get married, I know you've heard that one hundred times before because it is true. Your wife is your equal and its up to her to join you or to find her own way in life. Many followers that look to you in awe see you in a very different light once you marry them, they move on to other pursuits; opening their own shop for instance.

When you get married in real life tell your wife you expect her to be your follower and see how far it gets you.

And this? This is just unnecessary. You didn't even contribute to the conversation, just tossed out a pointless insult. Why would you do that? There are a lot of things that could be expanded in this game, and marriage is probably one of the biggest.