Unkillable followers?

So my poor lady died Uthgerd the Unbroken in Morvanskar when mages swat teamed her ass. Even though I had geared her up with better ebony weapons and gear she croaked too easy. This is like my fifth follower dead in battle and no, I did not screw up and spam a flame spell at her in the enemy area. What followers are not weak?

They can all be killed (by you) with the exception of a couple (like Mjoll). You can either get any one of the mods that make your followers unkillable or you can do the Black Book quest and get the perk.

As to followers being weak, that is a misconception. Many followers cannot exceed a certain level (20, 25, 30, 40, 50, etc..) with a couple of exceptions being around 100 and I believe 2 level as high as you want, but that doesn't really affect their vulnerability.

For me, it's more about weapons and armor and getting them to use them.

Lydia is a good example for me. She only levels to about 50 and is thus not much use at higher levels, unless, of course I give her good enchanted armor and weapons, in which case she is much more of a tank.

If you go on the skyrim wikia they have a list of all available followers and what their maximum level is. The vast majority of followers max out at level 25 and a few of them go up to 50.
Lydia is one of them and if I'm not mistaken the inner circle of the Companions also go to level 50.

When I played on PS3 it had a glitch where if you ever, even one time, accidently hit your follower with the marked for death shout, it makes them worthless forever. Even with upgraded
heavy armor one or two hits from a low level bandit would put them on their knees. I don't know if that glitch crosses over to any other platforms.

Thanks yeah getting Mjoll is super hard quest thru tough Dwemer ruins. I am level 41 now so not sure if I can do it. I did level up my armor and weapons quite a bit so at least can kill most monsters in 1-3 hits so should be doable. I've thought of doing the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild quest then getting the house in Riften as need better place to craft and store gear. Enjoyed the Daedra night to remember quest that was a fun one.

Mjoll is marked as essential, so not even you can kill her, but it does mean putting up with her talking incessantly.

From the UESP:

Derkeethus (due to a bug), Mjoll, two Dark Brotherhood Initiates, Cicero, SeranaDG and FreaDB are essential.

Click to expand...

These are the only followers that are essential and unkillable in vanilla Skyrim.

For the others, I would say it's a matter of your play style, and equipping them with healing potions, because followers will use the healing potions you give them. They won't use poisons (that I've noticed), but they will use as many health potions as they have on them to stay alive.

Remember, the 80% damage reduction armor cap applies to followers, as well.

And, again, your play style will have a huge affect on how long your followers survive any adventure in Skyrim. If you have a very "power through it" mentality where both you and your follower are expected to soak up the damage and soldier on you're going to lose more followers than if you finesse the combat and work around the AI. Use the combat tricks you know, like shield bash to stagger an opponent, and power attacks to whittle down their health faster; the faster you kill the enemy, the less time they have to kill your follower.

Thanks. My playstyle is a mix of battle mage and sneak assassin. I love the sneak kill animations. I will probably focus on my next character as a stealth kill assassin. I've been very disappointed at how lame magic sucks so bad in this game with the exception of conjuration which is useful with Dremora Lords and Storm Atronarchs who are badass tanks. Plus to get decent magic for combat, it is super hard to level up destruction to 100 compared to other magic schools. Getting Shadowmere horse to spam destruction and archery to high level is end game quest in Dark Brotherhood so what good is it if you are pretty much done the game and at level 50 anyhow? The stealth assassin with high archery and conjuration plus buffed gear is best way that I see to excel in Skyrim.

I like to summon minions, let them charge into battle while I pop a muffle/invisibility spell and then go mop up later. Not sure how effective this will be against Dragon Priests or Dwemer centurions or Falmers however.

I've only ever lost followers by killing them myself, they've never been killed by enemies, only beaten down, then I have to be careful that I don't damage them while their health is at minimum. The only time a follower has died by other means is if they've been attacked by a creature under my command (such as an animal when I'm playing a wood elf or have used the animal allegiance shout)

Essential followers: Aela, Vilkas, Farkas, DB followers. J'zargo as one of few that has no level cap & is essential. Other one like him, i think, is Serana, but for her you need Dawnguard DLC.
At your level, going through dwemer dungs should not be a problem. Dwemer machines are less of a challenge after lvl 30, the ones you should be wary of are Falmers who poison their weapons 50% of the time.

P.S. Followers wont drink potions you make. Only regular ones.

cool thanks. Yeah will have to give them potions next time to heal their bodies in combat. I do love the restoration potion glitch and dawn star hidden treasure chest! Was able to create glass armor with 1000 armor plus 9000 health enchantment and a glass sword with 8000 damage. I one shot frost troll easy as a test.