Oblivion:Followers

This is a list of NPCs and creatures in Oblivion that will at some point or another follow you and may fight at your side. These actors follow you, rather than you following them. Thus, you may be able to use them as allies outside of the quests they are supposed to be involved with. Some of them are essential, some are not and their death may prevent you from successfully completing their related quest. By equipping them you can increase their usefulness. Some of these actors respawn, so you do not have to be careful about them getting killed while fighting at your side. However, respawning characters have their inventories reset and cannot be equipped reliably, as the equipment will disappear.

For a list of followers added by the Shivering Isles expansion, see Shivering:Followers.

Characters marked with a yellow checkmark are essential at some times but not others.

Standard Followers

This page or section is incomplete. You can help by adding to it. Named Knights of the Nine need to be added For more information, see the help files, the style guide, and this article's talk page.

These characters are usually named and do not respawn. Some NPCs can be commanded to wait or follow. This can be very important, as some quests require you to solo or can be failed due to aggressive NPCs. The Command column identifies which NPCs can be commanded.

Name	Quest(s)	Essential	Respawn	Command
Adoring Fan	Appears after completing the Arena quests. He is not generally useful in combat because he runs away.		Respawns	Yes
Avita Vesnia	Umaril the Unfeathered Appears in the Priory of the Nine after completing Nature's Fury. She follows you during Umaril the Unfeathered and after it as well, but is no longer essential at this point.	Essential		Yes
Ajum-Kajin	Information Gathering (Ajum-Kajin will only fight on rare occasions, if killed you will not receive a reward for his quest, but he will not be targeted often since he is not hostile to enemies.)			No
Castellan Athon	Battlehorn Castle After purchasing the Battlehorn Barracks upgrade, you can ask Athon to follow you.			Yes
Claude Maric	Secrets of the Ayleids Claude Maric follows Umbacano, who then follows you. If Umbacano falls behind for whatever reason, Claude Maric will stay with him.			Yes
Erthor	Skingrad Recommendation Runs away when badly injured. In some cases he may run out of view and continue to run while being pursued by an attacker. This can lead to Erthor glitching and never being found again. Note: He will leave you if you go to the Mages Guild in Skingrad. Simply ask him to Wait before going in, then Follow when you leave.	Essential		Yes
Francois Motierre	The Assassinated Man. Quest will end if he dies and he will leave if you go into the Grey Mare in Chorrol.			Yes
Guilbert Jemane	Legacy Lost	Essential		Yes
Jauffre	Light the Dragonfires, Weynon Priory. Jauffre follows Martin who follows you.	Essential		Yes
Maglir	Den of Thieves You must cover for Maglir in the previous quest Unfinished Business or else he will not follow you in Den of Thieves.	Essential		Yes
Brother Martin	Find the Heir, Weynon Priory (He uses an area of effect frost spell, which can cause problems if you have other followers. He will also follow you during Light the Dragonfires, but he is no longer an essential NPC. And since the game is over if he dies, he is no longer a helpful follower.)	Essential		Yes
Mazoga the Orc	Mazoga the Orc, Knights of the White Stallion			Yes
Modryn Oreyn	Azani Blackheart	Essential		No
Reynald Jemane	Legacy Lost	Essential		Yes
Lady Rogbut gra-Shurgak	The Noble's Daughter	Essential		No
Sir Lathon	The Faithful Squire	Essential		No
Ulrich Leland	Corruption and Conscience	Essential		No
Umbacano	Secrets of the Ayleids (Umbacano ceases to be essential when you meet him outside Nenalata, i.e., when he starts following you)	Essential		Yes
Velwyn Benirus	Where Spirits Have Lease	Essential		No
Viranus Donton	The Master's Son	Essential		No

Generic Followers

These characters are usually generic respawning.

Name	Quest(s)	Essential	Respawn
Battlehorn Castellan	After purchasing the Battlehorn Barracks upgrade. If Castellan Athon dies this character can be purchased to replace him. This character must be re-purchased if killed.		Respawns
Battlehorn Man-At-Arms	After completing the Battlehorn Castle quest, you can ask one of the men-at-arms to follow you.		Respawns
Dark Brotherhood Murderer	Available after completing the Dark Brotherhood quests. Only one of the three will follow you at a time.		Respawns
Knight of the Nine	After completing the quests for the Knights of the Nine official download, you can ask one Knight to follow you. The original named knights are Sir Areldur, Sir Lathon, Sir Avita, Sir Carodus, Sir Thedret, Sir Geimund, Sir Brellin, and Sir Gukimir. If a named original Knight dies in your service, they will be replaced with a weaker generic "Knight of the Nine" who will respawn.		Respawns
Mage Apprentice	Available after completing the Mages Guild quests, it is possible to get two.		Respawns

Other Followers

These are people who may follow you during the listed quests, but they can not be used to help you with other quests or tasks, for the reasons provided in the table.

Name	Quest(s)	Essential	Respawn
Amusei	Lost Histories (He will stop following you as soon as you are away from the castle, so cannot be used for other quests.)	Essential
Baurus	Light the Dragonfires (He will only follow you in the Oblivion-invaded version of the Imperial City, and cannot be brought out of it while he is following you.)	Essential
Bremman Senyan	The Wayward Knight (Bremman will only follow you until he returns from the Oblivion world if you speak to Farwil)
Burd	Bruma Gate (Can be exploited using command consoles Bruma Gate quest)	Essential
Bruma Guard x2	Bruma Gate (Two Bruma guards will help you. Can be exploited using command consoles. Bruma Gate quest)	Essential
Dar-Ma	A Shadow Over Hackdirt (Dar-Ma will briefly follow you once you save her, is not much of a fighter, and if she dies you will not get any reward for this quest)
Eldamil	Paradise (Eldamil will not follow you outside of Paradise)		Respawns
Farwil Indarys	The Wayward Knight (Farwil will only follow you until he returns from the Oblivion world and you speak to him afterwards; if he dies you will not get the full quest reward; can be exploited as a follower)
Harrow	Dagon Shrine (Harrow only follows you once you join the Mythic Dawn, and you must kill him to retrieve your loot and complete the quest)
High Chancellor Ocato	Light the Dragonfires (Ocato will only follow you on his related quest, and cannot be used on other quests)	Essential
Ilend Vonius	Breaking the Siege of Kvatch (Ilend will only follow you in the plane of Oblivion)
Imperial Legion Archer	The Battle for Castle Kvatch (Will only follow you as far as the exit of Kvatch; if you try to leave, they will wait near the camp and patrol the perimeter.)		Respawns
Imperial Legion Messenger	Light the Dragonfires (The messenger will only follow you on his related quest, and cannot be used on other quests)
Imperial Legion Soldier x2	The Battle for Castle Kvatch See above.
Jailor	(Jailors from Anvil, Bravil, Bruma, Cheydinhal, Chorrol, Imperial City, Leyawiin and Skingrad will always follow you if you visit a prisoner in the dungeons.)
Jesan Rilian	The Battle for Castle Kvatch
Jirolin Doran	(unfinished, unnamed quest - not in game)
Merandil	The Battle for Castle Kvatch
Orthe	Paradise (Orthe will only follow you during this quest in Paradise, so can not be usefully used outside of this quest)
Raven Camoran	Paradise (Will follow you once you speak to him.)		Respawns
Rona Benanius	Battlehorn Castle (Rona Benanius is a servant in the castle, and can be asked for food or drinks, or to follow you, she will not fight, and will randomly disappear, only to come back later)	Essential
Selene	An Unexpected Voyage (Selene will only follow you while you are on the ship itself, and since it is impossible to escape back to the Waterfront until you have escorted her to imprisonment, she can be exploited as a follower using command console but is not essential.)
S'razirr	Nothing You Can Possess (S'razirr will only follow you if you refuse to pay him after recruiting him, and will attack you as soon as you are out of the Imperial City.)
Captain Steffan	Light the Dragonfires (Steffan will only follow you in the Oblivion-invaded version of the Imperial City.)	Essential

Creature Followers

Name	Quest(s)	Essential	Respawn
Atronach Familiar	Can be summoned at the Atronach Altar if you have the Wizard's Tower official download.
Everscamp	After acquiring the Staff of the Everscamp four Everscamps will follow you. They will not fight unless a Command Creature spell is cast on them, they respawn quickly and they mostly get in the way.		Respawns

Equipping Followers

One limitation of NPC followers is that they generally have mediocre equipment. And since NPCs never repair their equipment, it can become useless after a few fights. Most followers will pick up the best quality weapon available in the area when they start attacking, so all you need to do is drop a good weapon in front of them at the start of a fight.

You can add other items to your followers' inventory by reverse pickpocketing, but only if the item is zero weight. A few zero weight clothing items are available, and can be made more useful with enchantments. The best way to acquire armor, however, is by taking advantage of the permanent bound items glitch; a zero-weight version of any Bound Armor or weapon can be created this way. Enchant armor with effects like Fortify Attribute or Shield; add effects like Shock Damage or Absorb Health to a weapon. Your ally should automatically switch to the best quality item in their inventory, and will therefore equip your enchanted item. If not, fast travel or entering a new cell may be necessary.

Notes on Equipping Followers

• 100% Chameleon greatly increases the survival rate of NPCs. It is advisable to wear an item with Detect Life so you are able to locate your invisible follower.
• If the ally you want to equip sleeps, when they wake up they will put on their armor based on its placement in their inventory list alphabetically.
• PC users can use the additem and equipitem console commands to give their followers any piece of equipment and make them equip it.
• Respawning followers will lose their equipment under certain conditions.
• Of all the bound equipment, the bound weapons and shield deplete the slowest. They require much less repairing than other bound items.
• Two-handed NPCs still benefit from enchanted bound shields even though the shield is not visibly worn.
• A hood, wrist irons, bound weapon and bound shield is an optimal "low-maintenance" loadout for NPCs.
• NPCs will NOT choose zero-weight clothing over their own clothing or armor, even if the clothing is enchanted. If the NPC wears armor then the armor must be worn out (destroyed) before the NPC will select zero-weight clothing.
• To trick the NPC into wearing zero-weight clothing (enchanted or not), give the NPC both bound armor and the zero-weight clothing. Go to a new cell/zone to force a re-equip. Remove the default armor/clothing from the NPC. Take the NPC into battle so that the bound armor gets worn out (destroyed). The NPC will then select the zero-weight clothing (which will never require repairing).
• Here's a quicklist zero-weight clothing: Outfits - Black Robe (00064FE2), Child Overalls (000CAAA1), Shirts - Beggar's Shirt (00064F7E), Blue Collar Shirt (0000C59E), Dark Shirt (00064F7D), Ernest's Best Shirt (00064F76), Forester's Shirt (00064F79), Heinrich's Shirt (000CBD3F), Plaid Shirt (00064F78), Shirt with Suspenders (00064F77), Shop Keep's Shirt (000CBD33), Pants/Trousers - Black Wide Pants (00064F7B), Ernest's Fancy Pants (000CBD37), Rugged Pants (00064F7A), Short Britches (00064F7C), Hoods - Black Hood (00064FE3), Mage's Hood (00064FE1), Wrists - Wrist Irons (000BE335), Rings - Ring of Lordship/Dementia (000895D9) <requires Shivering Isle>

Notes

• If you have eight followers and try to acquire a ninth, a message will pop up saying, "You have too many followers." This will continue to appear every so often, but does not actually affect your game.
• Maintaining a large entourage may cause problems in that followers can hit each other in combat and end up fighting one another.
  • Due to the nature of their attacks, followers with ranged or area-of-effect attacks appear to be particularly vulnerable to this sort of behavior. Like the player, however, melee-based followers must strike each other three times before turning hostile to one another.
  • 100% Chameleon will prevent this behavior, as followers are incapable of retaliating against invisible attackers.
  • You can use the Console to increase the Disposition between followers.
• Some followers can be given commands like Follow, Wait, or Go Away. These include most generic respawning followers. Others always follow you around, regardless if you want them to or not.
• Some followers will not follow if you are already being followed by someone in the same faction. Others will replace the current follower from that faction.
• Spells and effects like Command Creature, Command Humanoid, Reanimate and Summon spells technically make characters and creatures follow you for the duration of that effect.

Bugs

• Some followers may unequip their weapon, and refuse to reequip it. This applies to the Knights of the Nine followers.