Ranged followers?

[InDarkestNight]

I rarely play with followers due to my preference for stealth and mage builds. Been thinking lately I should play with them more. Despite owning this game since release, honestly I don't know much about them. The only follower I've ever made extensive use of is Aela. I would like more choices than her though.

Looking over the UESP, it would seem ranged followers are rare. There's Faendal and Jenassa, along with some orc, but that's about it.

I was playing with Lydia, but I'm playing a shout-based build with the ordinator mod. She died in a draugr tomb during a boss fight. I don't think I accidentally killed her; I've made no assaults or murders. Strangely, I haven't received a letter of inheritance. I've also never gotten a bounty. Either way, she was getting in the way a lot. Hard to use shouts on a monster when your follower insists on staying right next to them. Thinking I need a ranged follower, besides I'm a pure melee build anyway.

Are my options really this few? Aela, Faendal, Jenassa, Lob? Why do most followers have to be melee characters? What, do they expect you to play a support class all the time? I did contemplate doing that, but I wasn't in the mood for such an experimental build. I was contemplating Mjoll, but she's even more of a melee character than the housecarls. I'm mainly looking for a follower with a different voice set from Aela's, because hers is pretty much the only one I've ever heard. Aren't there other choices than these 4?

[xkkmEl]

There are few vanilla followers to choose from.  Installing multiple simple follower mods is how I get around this.

Also, most vanilla followers belong to crime factions.  Hitting them has all sorts of consequences you probably don't want, in addition to death.  Follower mods mostly don't have crime factions and are essential.  They can still get angry (but less durably) or die, but you'll get more mileage.  I'd suggest also not getting too attached to any one of them; discard one, pick up a new one.

In previous posts, we were discussing using followers as a distraction for bosses while you chip at them from behind.  Ranged followers and spell casters are less useful in that scenario.

With my slow super-enchanted legendary dragonbone battleaxe, it happens with great regularity that one of my followers jumps between me and my target, and they take the full force of my power attack.  Part of the game.  I take their reaction as additional spice in my playthrough (sometimes includes running back to the town where I picked up the follower, with a very angry follower on my heels, to find a guard to whom to pay the bounty; it's what it takes to calm him down).

There are mods that will ensure your spells don't inadvertently damage your followers.  AFT is one.  There are others i'm sure.

Follower voices do get repetitive... On that account, I really enjoyed playing with Almond Joy.