[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I'm still alive. Barely.

And then Marcero or what the guy is called, the magican in Rifton. Definetly has seen too many Star Wars movies,

I knew I loved him for a reason. And be nice, that's my Magigolo you're talking about.

one moment I see the enemy, the next moment he already has zapped it. He even zaps stuff I never have seen. It'S a constant zapping noise behind me.

That's another reason why I love traveling with him, especially on long treks through the wilds. I don't really have to worry about wild animals or other hostiles taking me by surprise from behind or the side. I just run and let him watch my back and he does it very well, so many times I hear the *zap* and turn around with my weapons drawn and he's standing there bathed in the glow of some protective spell, hands all a-glimmer with destruction, and the lifeless form of a would-be attacker at his feet. And he just looks at me like: "What?"

My biggest complaint with him as a follower is that sometimes his spells blast the enemy so far away from where I last saw them that I have to spend several minutes trying to find them before I can loot them properly.

And of all the followers I've had so far I found his conversation the most appealing.

Maybe not everybody knows it, but there are bugs with the companions (the followers I mean, to be precise), it is sometimes hard to make them wear the stuff you give them, and they never use any other bow than their default (except Imperial bows which they accept if they are stroinger than their hunting bows). Solution I found via Google: take everything from them you still want them to carry, later. Then open console, click on the character, and type removeallitems.

There also appears to be an issue with followers and carry weight, i.e. how much stuff they can carry for you. It happens IME when you have a follower who is dismissed (either deliberately by you, or by the start of some quest that requires you to play alone or only with another designated follower) and picked up again repeatedly. What seems to happen is that every time you reacquire the follower, the game gives them another set of their default clothes, weapons, etc. I'm not sure if this is with every follower, but I really noticed it with Marcurio after I married him and did a number of quests where I was given other temporary followers and so he was constantly being dismissed and then I'd have to go back and tell him to follow me again. It got to the point where I'd give him an extra dagger to carry and suddenly he couldn't carry anything else.

If that happens you can use removeallitems as noted above and also there's a command to reset inventory, which will give them back one and only one set of their original stuff so they still have apparel and weapons if you need to take back everything you give them afterwards.

I have been using Argis lately, the housecarl you are given if you become Thane of Markarth, and I don't know if it's because I'd leveled up more before I met him and his stats were set or what, but he is a total badass. Found/made him a set of Orcish armor and preferred weapons and enchanted them all and he's turning out to be a lot like the Magigolo only without the magic. So far he has been almost unstoppable even against some strong magical opponents, I'm sure the resistance enchantments help, but even before that he was a powerhouse. Also I have not taken any of his original equipment away from him but he is definitely using the Orcish bow and arrows I gave him instead of his default stuff, I can tell because the bow is enchanted so it's easy to see he's pulling out that one instead of the default and I usually find and retrieve Orcish arrows when I loot the bodies of baddies that he's hit with it.

Shields obviously are wasted on companions preferring to fight with two-handed weapons (Mjoll). Give them the best two-hander you can get instead, but also a good bow. Give them best armour.

From what I've seen, followers will generally equip themselves with the apparel that provides the most protection and the weapons that (potentially) do the most damage, regardless of whether or not the gear is appropriate for their preferred fighting style and skill levels in various areas. I found this out the hard way with my first character when I traveled almost exclusively with Vilkas, who is pure warrior/combat with an emphasis on two-handed weapons and zero magic. I kept finding all these staves and eventually I had to give him a couple to carry and then in the middle of a pitched battle I would hear some zapping and popping and turn around and he would be trying to use one of them instead of whatever axe or greatsword he had.

I mean it was just sad, he actually got killed once by trying to shock a bear to death with a staff when he could've taken it down easily in one or two swings of his blade. Lesson learned - do not, I repeat DO NOT, give Vilkas any magical weapons to carry because he *will* use them. Badly.

I also had the luck - I assume it is randomised - to find dwarf boots very early, a very strong item for that early stage of the game, the boots are giviong 100% silence.

The Muffle enchantment is great. Use it on my own gear and anything I give to a follower. Especially nice since we all tend to wear heavy armor. Definitely helps with the sneaking, even at a higher level of Sneak skill it still seems to make a difference.