Are your skills slowed by so many followers?

[Aoikani]

Not everyone has reached the last battles such as the battle of Bruma, I would assume. I have only beat the main quest once and quite frankly the battle at Bruma is one of the hardest of 3 major battles I've participated in. The Mehrunes-Dagon/Akatosh battle, the slow down of the seige engine in Oblivion and of course the battle at Bruma are of the toughest I think, playing as a Mage character. The latter gave me the biggest headache of all over all the battles. I had to redo it over and over and over. Thanks to Ziggy's create spells anywhere, anytime mod, it gave me just that little extra edge to rethink and replay the battle until I got it right and won. Having to create spells that I could use to help me, but of course you know if you have that mod you are still somewhat limited to only what spells you have as a base to work with in order to create spells. In other words, if you have no cold based damage spells you can't create one with Ziggy's mod.

But to the point of this topic, I've wanted to try beating the main quest at a different approach by using partners. At best I've had up to 7 partners that would follow me or maybe that was 8. There is a limit, but I don't remember what it is. I've noticed though, that in battle with so many partners following you, my leveling and/or skill progression goes up slower when I can't use my skills - because they kill the enemies so much faster. So, that's the question: "Are your skills slowed by so many followers thereby slowing your leveling?" I want to try completing the main quest with lots of partners this time. I could probably not use followers until then, but will they be the same level when I recruit them? And then, I guess I'll have to get them good equipment if I hold off. Still using partners seems like it would be fun but may take longer to complete the quest.

 

Aoikani

[Vagrant0]

Yes, companions can affect how quickly you raise almost all combat related skills. They tend to be the first ones to enter battle, and tend to get in your way alot. Almost the only thing skillwise which might actually benefit are those spell skills related to healing and buffing, since that's almost all you'll end up doing. Attack spells, even those based on touch, have too great a tendency for hitting companions.