Dog...is it worth it

[Dagmar]

Odd, I have never had an enemy kill him, ever. In my current game I have had him with me for over 200 hours and only recently left him at home. He was with me til level 45ish. I had killed him many times, until we figured out a fighting style. He has taken on both mammoths and giants and not died, even after taking multiple hits from both.

As a follower he's a protected NPC when he follows you, meaning he gets one free pass when he is close to death and enemies will ignore him as he recovers health (for human followers they drop to one knee during this phase but as a quadriped Meeko doesn't). He'll die if it happens a second time in the same fight and he can still die from splash damage or a stray arrow which is probably why you ended up killing him accidentally.

If you get swarmed, as you can in certain locations that's generally where he may die, not against a few mammoths and giants

 

[Benthos]

Odd, I have never had an enemy kill him, ever. In my current game I have had him with me for over 200 hours and only recently left him at home. He was with me til level 45ish. I had killed him many times, until we figured out a fighting style. He has taken on both mammoths and giants and not died, even after taking multiple hits from both.

I accidentally killed Meeko when I was in a dungeon looking for a word of power or it was an unmarked side quest. He charged into the narrow hallway when I shot an arrow at the enemy and I accidentally hit him, I felt terrible but didn't want to reload from a long while ago and had to do everything again so I had to continue on as I made a memorial for him.

 

[Annageckos]

I don't know. More then once a giant and mammoths were really wailing on him. Once I left figuring that once I left he would follow but it didn't happen. I had to come back when I saw he was nowhere to be found. There he was between the giant and mammoths. They would hit him and his life would go down to almost nothing. He would kinda crouch down. Then they would ignore Meeko. When his life regened some they would hit him again and again his life would drop down. It kept on this circle for a few minutes. I had to find some high ground to kill them. He was never killed. Every time his life drops down to almost nothing he crouches til it regens then he joins back into the fight. Maybe he is just glitched in my game because he is never killed by enemies, even when there are a lot of them. We have fought large groups of druagr deathlords in tombs. Bandits, Forsworn... The only things that have ever killed him is me, my follower or an animal that I have used 'command animal' on. Maybe he is glitched in my game?

 

[Black Orchid]

is it worth getting a dog
what do they do

Only if they made it so you could use it for dog stew after it died, then it might be worth it.

 

[Harc]

They die and it's a waste of 500 gold

 

[Remington721]

is it worth getting a dog
what do they do

They Bark all the time and drives me nut's. Give away your location , a pee all over every thing . Then I go home and Jordis asks me what I have stuck to my shoe that's getting all over the floor .... I say , well it must be some kind of dog deposit I stepped in . That is Auto 1 week in another bed LOL ....J/K I get a little nuts sometimes >>> all in fun

 

[SauronTheDeceiver]

I only really get dogs to keep as a pet. I mean sure they make decent followers when you're low leveled but eventually they die pretty easily and I end up feeling awful about leading the poor thing to its doom.

 

[Wildroses]

I forgot to mention a unique annoying trait regarding Barbas and that is that his pathing is bugged. Most NPC's will path to a spot near you when you stop moving. Barbas however tries to path to where you're standing which effectively means he's constantly pushing you when you aren't moving. He has been known to push many player characters to their deaths this way when they are standing by a cliffside or the edge of a tower (including me). Exercise caution accordingly regarding where you stop or you'll be like me the first time you're near a cliff, falling to your death shouting "STUPID DOOoog!" [splat]

Wait, that's a bug? I seriously thought that was a deliberately designed feature! Something to prove Clavicus Vile wasn't a complete dick for exiling Barbas and give the player some motivation to kill him when offered the choice.

 

[JClarke1953]

is it worth getting a dog
what do they do

Bark, bark bark! The dang things NEVER shut up! Why there's no way to get them to quiet down, I don't know.

I had one, took it on several jobs, and even tho' he fought well, he always, always was barking, so I sent him back home!

 

[JClarke1953]

I forgot to mention a unique annoying trait regarding Barbas and that is that his pathing is bugged. Most NPC's will path to a spot near you when you stop moving. Barbas however tries to path to where you're standing which effectively means he's constantly pushing you when you aren't moving. He has been known to push many player characters to their deaths this way when they are standing by a cliffside or the edge of a tower (including me). Exercise caution accordingly regarding where you stop or you'll be like me the first time you're near a cliff, falling to your death shouting "STUPID DOOoog!" [splat]

Wait, that's a bug? I seriously thought that was a deliberately designed feature! Something to prove Clavicus Vile wasn't a complete dick for exiling Barbas and give the player some motivation to kill him when offered the choice.

I never had that problem. Just fast traveled to the destination, Barabas was there, and we went in and kicked-butt.

 

[tx12001]

there fun for roleplay like hunting and stuff but combat wise there are better choices like dwarven sphere

SHEOGORATH SAYS: How do you do puny expendable little Mortal, You Are talking about Clavicus viles dog right, woke up one morning and he was chewing on my slippers - quote from the mind of madness

 

[Akhkharus]

Lydia doesn't like them. When I had a Stray Dog as a house pet she could be heard saying "Stupid dog!" on more than one occasion when it barked.

Spoiler

 

[tx12001]

Dog - BARK BARK,
Ondolomer - Stupid Dog
Thalmor justiciar - I stepped in something?

 

[tx12001]

Ondolomor - Stupid Dog
Death Hound - Growl!!!
Thalmor Justicar - Run!!

 

[HappyFaceClown]

There not so great, they get in the way of everything and die really fast in battle. Not worth having imo.

 

[tx12001]

There not so great, they get in the way of everything and die really fast in battle. Not worth having imo.

It is also strange how the Huskies level up to 25 but the death hounds are only level 5, what use are any animal followers

 

[HappyFaceClown]

There not so great, they get in the way of everything and die really fast in battle. Not worth having imo.

It is also strange how the Huskies level up to 25 but the death hounds are only level 5, what use are any animal followers

Some of them are useful, like bears, but those can only be reanimated unless your a wood elf and can't be brought into caves or dungeons which i think is stupid, there should have been a way to *tame* bears and saber cats.

 

[tx12001]

Well they are not actually animal followers in a sense, they are more along the lines of the reanimated dead
if you have the bend Will shout you can pretty much force anything to fight for you even a legendary dragon, it makes having an animal follower obselete when you make a herd of mammoths kill each other

 

[HappyFaceClown]

Well they are not actually animal followers in a sense, they are more along the lines of the reanimated dead
if you have the bend Will shout you can pretty much force anything to fight for you even a legendary dragon, it makes having an animal follower obselete when you make a herd of mammoths kill each other

Bend will shout makes things fight for you??? I thought it was only good for riding dragons!

 

[tx12001]

Well they are not actually animal followers in a sense, they are more along the lines of the reanimated dead
if you have the bend Will shout you can pretty much force anything to fight for you even a legendary dragon, it makes having an animal follower obselete when you make a herd of mammoths kill each other

Bend will shout makes things fight for you??? I thought it was only good for riding dragons!

no it does I can force guards to turn on each other, it makes powers like command animal and shouts like animal allegiance and kyne's peace useless and pointless, it also works better then dragonrend in getting a dragon to the ground, what did yu think the shout done?? it is the same shout which Miraak was using to force the people of solstheim into building his shrines, it does not work on the undead though