Who's in your party?

[enkephalin07]

My 'Five Man Band' topic didn't go anywhere, so I'll just put the question I was asking right out front: who do you pick to follow you, and why? Is there any you recommend?

[Guest]

Jenassa has been at my side more than any other companion in the game. I've always found  her no nonsense cold blooded routine quite refreshing compared to most of the idiot housecarls you get saddled with.  I rarely complete guild questlines these days, so if anything I use her more now than ever.  If not Jenassa then nobody really. All my characters like to operate as lone wolves, I find most companions a nuisance. 

 

 

 

 

[afa]

I haven't use vanilla followers.

Mostly custom followers, I have too many in my game now.

I used to not care about follower, but then after downloading my first one, now I can't stop myself!

 

I prefer to go with 2 to 3, but lately have been trying out 4...which might be too much for my computer currently to have everything work in perfect order, but it still runs decent enough

And too crowded for my liking for indoor areas.

 

Currently running around with 2 one hand fighters, 1 two hand fighter, and a third that I tried to keep as 1 hand but seems to want to pick up a bow when one is dropped from enemy.

[ElvinG]

Lydia and my custom dunmer mage follower. Just the three of us against whatever Skyrim can throw at us.

[srayesmanll]

For me it depends on the type of character I'm playing.  Usually I go alone (sneaky thief-type, hunter/ranger, etc), but when I do use non-animal followers, I tend to use melee combat followers.  Uthgerdt (sp) is the primary one  (makes Ysgramor look like a whimpering schoolgirl ).  Lydia is another one I use.  The other Housecarls I leave at the house (otherwise they would be Travellercarls, wouldn't they ).  Janessa is another one I might use.  I don't use custom followers,  I rarely use animal followers either, although as a hunter/ranger type I use a druid conjuration mod that allows me to conjure animals to use.  Not truly "followers", but I use them like followers (AKA "cannon-fodder").

[Buddy Christ]

I have Janessa with me all the time. Mainly, because I really love the voice.

For a while I had Mjoll as a follower, but without a "shut up Mjoll" mod, she really gets to me after a while.

Lydia is a follower I use for the first couple of hours after getting a housecarl.

 

Vilja is hanging out at Whiterun now. I had her with me for the questline and even though I appreciate the voice work done for her,

I am not too fond of her chatter. (I know, I could tune it down, but while I think, she has a sweet voice, the accent kills me sometimes )

 

From the Companions, Njada is my favourite. I love her voice as well.

 

Darn... Seems like I am going for the voices, not for the skills ^^

 

I haven't used that many custom followers, since they tend to be script heavy.

[enkephalin07]

Currently running around with 2 one hand fighters, 1 two hand fighter, and a third that I tried to keep as 1 hand but seems to want to pick up a bow when one is dropped from enemy.

Can you name any of them? It's not a recommendation until you tell people what you're recommending. If you can't recommend any vanilla followers, then who should I dload?

 

In my party.. there is No one else But lil ole me!

 

I don't use followers, makes the game too easy, and i'm all ready playing it on Legendary with SkyRE, realistic needs mod and frostfall mod and many more.

I'd actually prefer this, but it's not feasible at expert+ difficulty. Level for level, ever y NPC's skill advancement concentrates in the few skills that make them more combat competent. The player character has to spread their point advancement over utility skills. Head to head, you stand nada fucka chance.

 

For me it depends on the type of character I'm playing.  Usually I go alone (sneaky thief-type, hunter/ranger, etc), but when I do use non-animal followers, I tend to use melee combat followers.  Uthgerdt (sp) is the primary one  (makes Ysgramor look like a whimpering schoolgirl ).  Lydia is another one I use.  The other Housecarls I leave at the house (otherwise they would be Travellercarls, wouldn't they ).  Janessa is another one I might use.  I don't use custom followers,  I rarely use animal followers either, although as a hunter/ranger type I use a druid conjuration mod that allows me to conjure animals to use.  Not truly "followers", but I use them like followers (AKA "cannon-fodder").

Please go on. What kind of character needs what kind of teammate?

[srayesmanll]

 

For me it depends on the type of character I'm playing.  Usually I go alone (sneaky thief-type, hunter/ranger, etc), but when I do use non-animal followers, I tend to use melee combat followers.  Uthgerdt (sp) is the primary one  (makes Ysgramor look like a whimpering schoolgirl ).  Lydia is another one I use.  The other Housecarls I leave at the house (otherwise they would be Travellercarls, wouldn't they ).  Janessa is another one I might use.  I don't use custom followers,  I rarely use animal followers either, although as a hunter/ranger type I use a druid conjuration mod that allows me to conjure animals to use.  Not truly "followers", but I use them like followers (AKA "cannon-fodder").

Please go on. What kind of character needs what kind of teammate?

 

 

For example, I'm about to start a playthrough with a female bosmer hunter.  Her weapon skills will be Archery.  That's it.  Archery.  No 1H, 2H, offensive spells.  Just...Archery.  Most situations can be handled OK with an archer (especially with some additional archery/arrow mods and a good setup of alchemy poisons), but having a melee-based follower means having a distraction when fighting things like dragons, giants, etc.  With this character, I do plan on using conjuration (druid conjuration mod) to conjure animals so I probably won't use humanoid followers much.  I almost never use the vanilla animal followers mainly because they are boring - you basically have to choose among a dog, a dog, another dog, 2 undead dogs, 2 huskies (uhh, dogs), or... well, nope.  Just dogs.  Mod added animals followers are better, but so many have too much crap added to them that I just use the conjured animals.  However, this time I'm going to try using the Wolf Master mod which adds 3 potential wolf followers after "rescuing" them.

 

Thief characters usually are strictly solo for me, but even then it's good having a melee character as a distraction while traveling to towns/villages (unless fast/carriage traveling) to help with fights with dragons and such.  Once I get there, I have the follower either leave, or wait at the inn while I do my more "thiefy" stuff.

 

The reverse is true as well.  Playing a fighter-type can handle almost all creatures and situations, but having a follower with good support spells (which means having mods that allow you to better control follower spells) can keep your fighter in the fight longer, or help whittle down the enemy with spell/archery damage (as long as the follower can hit the enemy and not your character).

[ElvinG]

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34473/?

 

Useful mod for those that like to play a squishy mage.

[afa]

Can you name any of them? It's not a recommendation until you tell people what you're recommending. If you can't recommend any vanilla followers, then who should I dload?

 

 

Sure. Here is the current set up. Also it's not that I dislike vanilla follower or anything in particular, but my game usually doesn't last that long for me to go around unlocking them and trying them out. Getting them to look good also require extra effort, also some of them are non-essential which could be annoying depending on what I am doing.

 

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37803/

Good with one hand, bow, and light armor, but won't use bow unless given. Light armor and good sneak. Probably one of the more balance of the ones that I have tried. Has crazy high stamina for some reason.

 

angela from here

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/31333-chinese-follower-pack/

Beastly 2 hander and heavy armor. Very focus on these two stats and not much else except for sneak also, but with the perks that boost them along with high health. Might be a bit OP.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/47649/

Also good with one hand, bow, and light armor plus sneak. However she is the one who is addicted to using any bow she comes across. Pretty balance for the most part, probably the weakest melee of the bunch. Her bow is very strong however, but then again Skyrim bows are strong in general. Seems to have a level cap and usually lower level than PC.

 

Lynea from here

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1399-yuih-standalone-follower-season2/

Two hand, one hand, heavy, light armor, suppose to be good with dual wield too, but never seems to pick it naturally. Poor sneak however, not sure if NPC vs NPC sneak actually matters, need to test. She is pretty much good with any melee and armor although seems to prefer light, slightly high health.

 

 

 

Here is basically my thought process from most important to least

1: Looks  simple enough

2: Won't outlevel PC...not by too much at least.

3: Not too OP (mostly health or a caster with crazy magicka)

4: preferably no raising spells (too crowded and confuses me  )

5: preferably not bow user but as an option could be nice. I typically play the ranger/caster

6: Spell caster...difficult to judge, generally I prefer no offensive spells, but can be fine if their AI can handle it without doing crazy stuff.

 

Others followers that I have tried and still have installed:

 

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/34746-abigail-the-lusty-imperial-maid/

Decent with melee, and cast a few spells, especially armor spells. Surprisingly good AI, and despite description say she isn't that strong, she is actually pretty tanky.

 

http://devillord.tistory.com/289

You can pick her perk based on the esp, I forgot which I went with, but not the bow one. Also pretty balance. I think she prefers light armor despite starting with a heavy. Might prefer two hand also, don't remember. I plan to put her back in my line up eventually.

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/35315-hidielle-follower/

I still have 1.0 somewhere, currently have 2.0 installed.

1.0 she was very modest stat wise, but with 2.0 she becomes a very powerful spell caster along with conjuration. With a low member count line up she is good choice, put a tanky follower in front of her you can pretty much just sit back and watch the fireworks. Actually she can probably conjure up her own tank

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/30913-yuih-standalone-follower-emily/

Don't let the "most weak" fool you. Her archery is powerful.  Decent melee too if I recall correctly

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/29356-elf-milf-beautiful-stand-alone-follower-yui0820/

There's an updated version of her, http://www.loverslab.com/topic/30998-yuih-standalone-follower-filauria/

The older version was the one that started it all. My first downloaded follow that lead me down this obsessive path! Pretty tanky, I forgot if her level is always above PC.

The updated version however...is definitely tanky as hell, and above PC level by significant margin.

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/34781-laura-follower/

At first glance her health, magicka, and stamina is pretty standard if not slightly low by follower standards. But once the combat starts she is a not quite frail glasscannon. Ton of spells including conjuration, frost cloak with deep freeze for paralyze, good melee, and to top it all of, Fus ro Dah.

 

 

Also as a side note I prefer to play the game on normal difficulty with other mods that tweak the quantity and occasionally quality of the spawn. Normal is necessary because on higher difficulty followers seems to take less damage making them amazing tank regardless.

[enkephalin07]

I think I'm pretty much inseparable with Gorr and Sofia this playthrough. Gorr is one of the top 10 from Interesting NPCs. He's a guy with a big weapon who always goes balls deep with it. Sofia is a snarky spellsword, a bit overpowered, but I'm playing expert difficulty with a mostly non-combatant character.

 

I don't think Ali/Alicia is really gelling with us. I'd like to see what her integrated personality and skillset are like before I come to any conclusions, but so far it looks like after I wrap up in Windhelm, I'll be leaving her behind.

 

I hired a destruction mage mercenary who didn't work out at all. He pissed off the rest of the party so frequently that eventually I helped them kill him. Throwing AoE's into melee doesn't make a good teammate.

 

What I'm looking for is a good personality with a skillset that works well with others. I prefer uniquely voiced, that way when I hear a character voice I know whether it's one of my followers or an NPC nearby that I may or may not need to be aware of. I think I want a ranged attacker who won't splash their damage around haphazardly. I don't want any of those Mary Sue types, who need their companionship to be all about them, and make you jump through hoops just to get or keep their favors. These prima-donna types are especially disrespectful to the excellent characters made by others.

[Ricocotech]

For me, I use Lydia because she's my pack mule. Erandur because he has some unique dialogue in the major cities. Last is a custom companion named Inigo because of the features he has. To name a few he can read you a story, judge you based on your actions in the game, and react to the things you are doing like running backwards. There's a lot more he can do.

 

Here's the mod page. ---->> http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960/?

 

 

 

[crudo]

Almost always use Jenassa.  In my current game she got killed by a bunch of thugs and I've been trying others.

 

Vanilla (I do use Skyrim Beautiful Follwers so while they are vanilla characters they look very different) -

Anneke

Jordis the Swordmaiden

Ria

Mjoll

 

Modded -

Olivia Wilde, she's too powerful so I restrict her abilities with ATF.

Alexandra, also too powerful and restrict her as well.

Seytirra

 

I rarely travel with more than one companion.

[Allannaa]

Kharjo is my follower of choice for a lot of reasons.

 

Vanilla, with no follower mods, he's badass enough to keep us both alive, even without consoling "sifh 1 and setessential 1" parameters.

 

Vanilla, with no retextures or body mods, he's the best looking (other than Ri'saad, whom you cannot acquire as a follower), and because he's got fur instead of "skin", he's not filthy dirty.  (Separate rant -- Medieval peasants, contrary to popular belief, were NOT dirty.  If Skyrim's based on Earth medieval peasants, then I call BS.  Second -- it's frakking SKYRIM, there's snow all over the damned place, and becaue it's cold, there's generally a FIRE somewhere.  Ergo, there's plenty of opportunity to melt snow and wash your damned dirty face, for Talos's sake!  And don't even get me started on the people who live along watercourses *riverwood, the town near the sulphur springs, let alone solitude for crying out loud* and still don't wash.)

 

Vanilla, with no voice mods, he has a nice sexy but not "man-slutty" voice.

 

However, after the first run through of vanilla, to ensure I understood gameplay and the various major quests before I popped open the CK to start messing about...  Yeah, I don't play vanilla.  And that means Kharjo is even MORE awesome.

 

I use UFO and KMM, along with a marrige dialogue mod.  I also have a BAT file that makes K proficient in my own fave skills -- Light armour, Archery (marksman), and Two-handed.  But UFO lets you tell your follower to "train some", and matches his/her skills to your own, and to your level.

 

I use body mods (can't recall which atm) that make K less scrawny -- if you ever played EverQuest, and you remember the Kerrans, or the first Vah Shir, they were scrawny, funny-furred, ugly creatures, and Skyrim's Khajiit looked that bad too, without the mesh and texture replacers.  In my world, K's a freakin' Khajiit GOD as far as physical beauty.  (Thank you SoS for really making him... um... yeah.)

 

The dialogue mods I use (MFVM and FCO) along with Fuz Ro D'oh to let me read subtitles, make K pretty interactive.  Though there have been some truly hilarious juxtapositions with this -- the last time we went to get Serana out of her rock coffin, he said something about something smelling foul, and then something else about dead bodies and treasures just as she popped out of the monolith.

 

Buuuuuut... With the addition of adult mods in addition to SoS, K becomes truly a hawt property, at least to me.  He can kick bandit butt and protect me (with the right mods and their options selected).  He can provide endless hours of sexual experimentation, and he looks pretty damned fine in nothing but slave boots and a white harness.  Among other things.

 

But mostly I just prefer him because of his looks, his voice, and the fact that I'm more used to him, so I know how he fights and can complement his style to keep both of us alive.  As an added note, I've never had to make him essential, even when fighting dragons that are tweaked by DCO.  K can and will survive, even on "Legendary" game setting.

 

Oh, and one other thing.... I don't use followers for packmules for a few reasons --

I hate a crowded inventory; it confuses me.  So I carry only my bow and arrows, my armour and jewelry, a waterskin, and a few apples and a couple of stews, non-droppable items (the Scrolls, usually), a few empty soulgems (I charge a weapon as soon as the fight's over, so I don't have random stacks of gems), three or four heal potions, and a few flowers becuase I have this thing about dropping flowers on graves.  If I need heal potions, I gather wheat and blisterwort, travel to the nearest town or dungeon with an alchemy lab, and make the potions... and I don't use any other potions because I'm just a goofy little elf, I don't get all this "magic" crap.

 

And a second "other thing".... It tickles my sense of the ridiculous to be Bosmer and have a Khajiit follower... given that the Khajiit were fooled by the Thalmor into believing the Thalmor brought back the moons... and given that the Khajiit once invaded Valenwood and destroyed the trees.  (Where do you think what's his name got the idea for Avatar, hmmm?)  So I like having a soft, furry, sexy, badass warrior -- who HAS TO DO WHAT I TELL HIM! muhahaha

[gvman3670]

I now have Jenassa (the Skyrim's Beautiful Followers version....yum) and Sha following me around. The look great and don't mess around when it comes to killing baddies.

[fizzybutt]

Inigo.

 

Because he cracks me up and who doesn't love a big, blue kitteh 

 

He was sneaking behind me in that old abandoned house and his shadow ate my shadow. Made for interesting conversation x3

[Killing Joke]

On my sexlab profiles, I've installed some "bimbos" to mess around with, they're here as sex dolls staying at home to fulfill my char's sexual appetite, but they don't follow me around. The only real follower I have is Alicia painslut because she's overly twisted and funny.

 

On my "lore friendly" profile, none from skyrim vanilla. I've tried several custom ones like Vilja, Sofia and several others, but there's always something I greatly dislike in them. The only one that convinced me and I still keep is Arissa. Although not so much with my sneaky char because she uses the vanilla AI package so she tends to go on a rampage at the least desirable moment.

[Resdayn]

I usually use vanilla followers,but depends which character i play.

For thief/assasin i say Cicero or Jenassa.

Warrior follower Kharjo,Erik.

Mage follower Serana(i use her too much ),J'zargo,Marcurio

[FauxFurry]

I usually pick whoever has the most relevance to the current major plot line that I am progressing through (though J'Zargo gets a lot more party time than anyone else who isn't Serana), a pet (usually Scoelang or a Riekling) and,counting mods, Inigo.

[FauxFurry]

For a suggestion that won't turn up too often,for a few more or less 'lore-friendly' male followers to help round out your party, you might want to give Professor Benjamin Doon and Thorald Greymane a try-out.

If you are already playing as a beautiful woman or as a would-be lady's man,Thorald can quickly become either one's biggest admirer or one's wingman while on the prowl while the professor,well,read his discription on the Nexus.

[Killing Joke]

I usually pick whoever has the most relevance to the current major plot line that I am progressing through (though J'Zargo gets a lot more party time than anyone else who isn't Serana), a pet (usually Scoelang or a Riekling) and,counting mods, Inigo.

 

Ah yes, forgot those, I always have a husky around, but only with a mod to mute them.