August Vote 2020

 This month, I wanted to try another unique follower concept. Well, kind of unique as far as followers in Skyrim go. I want to make a "weak" follower that sort of acts as an apprentice to your character. So they'll always be at a much lower level than you and hardly effective in higher level battles. They'll deal some damage, but not as much as a regular follower and they wont have much health, stamina, and magicka and so you'll have to protect her. She'll grow in strength, but she'll always be out leveled.

She'd sort of be a way to change up the gameplay. I don't know if anyone has ever tried this, but playing with a follower that is mostly useless adds a new dynamic to the game. Before I started sharing my mods, I had a knight character and a noble lady he traveled with who didn't do any combat. It made the game a little more difficult without making the enemies tougher because now my character had to protect someone other than themselves.

She wont actually be useless. She'll be helpful, just not as helpful as a regular follower. the idea here is to add an extra layer of challenge by trying to keep her alive. I'm thinking she'll either not be essential at all or maybe set her to protected instead.

For her appearance, I haven't fully decided, I just know she'll likely be in her late teens or early 20's range.

Options:

• Squire: She'll use a melee weapon and a shield. It could be a sword, but I want to keep the option open for a mace or hammer. Her defense would be higher than her strength, but she still wouldn't be an effective tank.
• Mage Novice: I'm thinking maybe destruction with a small status effect that slows down enemies for a few short seconds, like 3 or 4.
• Small time Rogue: She'd use a slingshot (technically a bow, but it's all the same function). She'll also have high lockpicking skill, well, as high as it can be because her level will be really low compared to the player's level.

Technical Stuff

• The melee and ranged weapons would have to be high damage so that the followers will actually use it. In Skyrim, when NPCs have a weak weapon and there's a stronger weapon on the ground, they'll pick it up and use it. So I have to do this so that they keep using their signature weapons. To counter this, their levels would be a lot lower than the mage's. So they'll still be weaker than the average follower. The Novice mage will not be able to use staves, only her magic (and what ever magic you teach her). She also wont be able to use any kind of weapons.
• Their levels will still depend on your level like all my other followers. Instead of matching your level though, they'll be around level 20 when you're already level 50 for example. This number/rate isn't set in stone though.