Does Aela use a shield (as your follower)?

[Buddhis Aurelius Maximus]

This is probably a stupid question, BUT I was looking around the forums and didn't find anything on the subject--so I thought I'd ask:

I just started a new character yesterday.
I am in the middle of The Companions quest line; and upon finishing it, I am going to marry Aela and outfit her in full Dragonscale Armor.
Before I get to that point, could anyone tell me if she'll use a Dragonscale shield (or any shield, for that matter) if I give her one?



Thanks in advance!
Buddha

 

[Skullrattla]

Yes, she will use anything good you give her, including shields, and incuding dual wielding staves ( my favourite, fireballs and lightning).

I think she's meant to be light armor skilled but don't know if it really matters. Light armor is best IMO, anyway.

 

[Buddhis Aurelius Maximus]

I think she's meant to be light armor skilled but don't know if it really matters. Light armor is best IMO, anyway.

Thanks, Skull.
But ya, Dragonscale IS Light Armor, the Dragonplate is Heavy Armor--FYI. And ya, I agree, Light Armor is best for movement/stamina/carry weight, etc.; unless of course you're maxed out where you want to be skill-wise, and activate The Steed Stone which, nullifies all of the crappy aspects of Heavy Armor.

But ya, I've played this game quite a bit and for some reason, never used Aela as a follower.



Thanks alot for the advice!

 

[Dagmar]

Followers will favor equipment that matches up to their primary skill sets. Aela's are Archery and Light Armor so if given the choice she will generally equip light armor instead of heavy armor and a bow rather than sword and shield. You can force her to equip things by taking away other weapons and armor, but like many follower's she has invisible inventory including a default bow that she will eventually respawn and equip. Many followers will favor a staff over a bow regardless of their archery skill though (my Lydia will strip a staff off a dead mages body if it's nice enough and use it instead of her Legendary Daedric bow).

 

[Skullrattla]

My Aela at some point had 11 hunting bows in her inventory... because of a bug a new default weapon spawns every time you recruit a follower .
The bows are normaly not visible in her inventory but the weight they add is real. I used Fixed Followers Lite mod which made her hidden items acessible so i just removed the bows and now she uses the Daedric bow i gave her, which she didn't use before.