So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[kandrathe]

Yeah, you can do this with Lydia, but you cannot make Aela or Farkas wait. You have no control on their behavior at all and they can really get in the way. In one of the Silver Hand missions, I wanted to use a door as a choke point but kept getting "pushed" through the door by Aela. (Speaking of "pushing" companions, none is worse than the dog in the Lord Vile daedric quest). My sword and shield warrior has finally come into his own, largely because I spent some time improving his blocking skill. Just as in Oblivion, upping your blocking skill is really time consuming. You have to let a wolf beat on you at low levels. Finally, my character can use giants to up his blocking skill. I do not know why blocking is so much harder to skill than other combat skills. It has to be the single slowest combat skill to level.

Ah. Quest companions, yes, there are many where Aela stands outside guarding the entrance, and the NPC goes hog wild on the dungeon, aggroing everything. <reload>

I was helping the youngest with his stealthy thief on Irkngthand, in the latter steps of the thieves guild quest line. He had to sneak by the Falmer ( sightless snow elves with excellent hearing), but trying to lead the two NPC's through a Falmer camp, while the Falmer are moving around, and not setting off the alarm awakening 10 or so Falmer. For the last camp, he just skipped the sneaking, put on his best armor, and booked for the zone changing door on the other side of the camp. Luckily, the enemy boss NPC you need to defeat, dialogs long enough for the health and stamina bars to recover.