The 20 Best Skyrim Follower Mods | High Ground Gaming (2024)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is undoubtedly one of the most popular RPGs of all time. It’s constantly receiving new updates and has managed to maintain a loyal fan base despite coming out all the way back in 2011. Skyrim has a massive quest pool with tons of dungeons to explore and NPCs to meet, but even a game of that magnitude can start to feel stale after a full decade — that’s why fan mods are so popular! Here, we’ve rounded up the best Skyrim follower mods, including Special Edition, overhaul, and new female/male follower mods.

Using mods, gamers can customize their game in ways that would never be possible in the vanilla version, like donning a set of cool, custom-made armor from one of the best armor mod kits. One aspect of the game players are probably most interested in modifying are their followers. No NPC spends more time in the game with you, and even the best followers in Skyrim can start to feel stale after a while. That’s why we’ve decided to put together this list of the best Skyrim follower mods!

To make it easy, we split them up into the top 10 mods to enhance your interaction with followers and the 10 mods that add additional followers. These are the cream of the crop. Enjoy!

10 Best Follower Enhancement Mods

Want to add more versatility to your followers? Here’s our top 10 list of Skyrim follower enhancement mods!

10. Relationship Dialogue Overhaul

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1187

Hearing the same lines of dialogue over and over can get tedious, especially when it’s coming from a follower. Their job is to follow you around everywhere you go, so a little extra variety goes a long way. That’s when you want to add the Relationship Dialogue Overhaul mod. It adds “over 5,000 lines of completely voiced dialogue for NPCs using the original voices.” This doesn’t replace the dialogue that’s already in the game, it expands on it using the same voice actors who played the original NPCs.

The focus isn’t exclusively on followers, either. This mod adds extra dialogue to spouses and various other popular NPCs as well!

9. Interesting NPCs

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29194

The land of Skyrim is pretty densely populated already, but having more interesting people to talk to can revitalize the landscape and make exploring the same old cities interesting again. The Interesting NPCs mod adds “over 250+ fully voiced NPCs, 25+ followers, 15+ marriage NPCs, and 50+ quests.” Now you’ll not only have over two dozen extra fully voiced followers to choose from, you’ll also have plenty more people to meet and quests for you and your follower to complete. This is especially nice if you don’t like sticking with one follower for a long time and want a big pool of them to change out regularly.

8. Followers can Relax

Download Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=12466&searchtext=follower

You put a lot of work into securing one of the best houses in Skyrim, and sometimes you want to just kick back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. It can be hard to relax if you follower is just looming over you, though. That’s why there’s the Followers can Relax mod. It allows players to tell their follower to stay in an area and interact with their environment, similar to how Serena from the Dawnguard DLC behaves. One of the coolest features it offers, though, is an ingredient collection AI package that makes your followers roam the nearby area in the overworld collecting any ingredients they find.

7. Call Follower

Download Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2381897763&searchtext=follower

Ever lose track of your follower? Maybe they got stuck in a dungeon, or maybe you just told them to wait somewhere and then forgot. Call Follower is pretty straightforward, but it’s extremely useful. That’s why it remains one of the most popular mods in Steam’s Workshop. It adds an item called a War Horn to general stores and loot containers throughout the game. These horns can then be used to instantly summon your follower to your side like Roach in The Witcher 3. Beware though, blowing the horn will also draw the attention of nearby enemies.

6. Follower Trap Safety

Download Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=14317&searchtext=follower

There’s nothing like sneaking through a dark dungeon, carefully navigating trip wires and plate traps, only to have a clumsy follower stumble right into them (I’m looking at you, Lydia!). The Follower Trap Safety mod “changes few base scripts and as a result your followers and summoned creatures should no longer trigger bear traps, pressure plates and trip wires.” It’s much easier to be stealthy without giant plumes of flame suddenly jutting out of the walls.

5. Followers Keep Up

Download Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=10172&searchtext=follower

How many times have you sprinted into battle only to find that your follower was nowhere to be found? Even the most in-shape NPCs have a hard time keeping up with a Dragonborn who’s shouting Whirlwind Sprint every two minutes. That’s when you need the Followers Keep Up mod. It makes your followers pick up the pace whenever they start to fall behind and it even causes them to teleport to your location if you leave them in the dust. It even works with dogs and thralls!

4. Familiar Faces

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54509

This is a great one for veteran Skyrim players. Familiar Faces allows player to bring their own past characters into their game as companions! “Visit the Shrine of Heroes, where you can meet your Dragonborn from past playthroughs, create a monument to their achievements, and even bring them to your world as faithful allies… or worthy opponents!” After all, who would make a more worthy follower for you than you?

3. Better Stealth AI for Followers

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16531

If you liked the Follower Trap Safety mod, then you’re going to love Better Stealth AI for Followers. I can’t tell you how many times my rogue archer was stealthing through the underbelly of a castle, trying to lineup a perfect shot on a guard, only for my follower to run screaming into battle and give away the game. Better Stealth AI for Followers makes followers unequip their torches while sneaking and forces them to stay out of battle until after the enemy has fully detected the player’s presence.

2. Ultimate Follower Overhaul

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/14037

Ultimate Follower Overhaul (or UFO) is a big mod packet that adds a ton of extra functionality to followers. It lets you hire up to fifteen followers at one, display followers stats, level them up, and more! It’s sort of a catch-all mod for overall improvement. It would be number one on our list, but there’s another mod that does the same thing, only better.

1. Extensible Follower Framework

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12933

Looking for the best follower overhaul mod for Skyrim? This is it. Extensible Follower Framework (or EFF) is like UFO, only bigger, newer, and more stable. Want an easier way to control followers? EFF lets you execute follower command through a menu rather than dialogue. Want to recruit more than one follower at a time? EFF lets you have up to 100!

There are so many added features in EFF that we don’t have room to list them all. It allows you to control their wardrobe, have them ride horses, and even set their combat style to ‘Default,’ ‘Mage,’ ‘Berserker,’ Archer,’ ‘Thief,’ or ‘Warrior!’ If you only get one follower enhancement mod, get EFF.

10 Best New Follower Mods

Looking for new followers to spice up your game? Here’s our list of the 10 best new followers to add in Skyrim!

10. Wolf Follower

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/39625/

Most of the companions on this list had to be fully voice acted in order to qualify, but this one is something of an exception. Once the mod is added, the wolf follower can be found as a puppy next to its dead mother in a wooded clearing at the foot of the mountains near Riverwood’s South Gate.

It might start out as a sweet, adorable pup, but it won’t stay that way. The wolf follower actually grows over time, changing from a little ball of floof into a fully grown wolf over the course of ten in-game weeks. You have to be sure to feed him some raw meat every day, though. It’s kind of like having a Tamagotchi that can rip the throats out of bandits. It was indeed necessary to include this one in our best follower mods for Skyrim SE.

9. Cerwiden

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/20787

One of the most useful skills to look for in a follower is healing magic. Cerdwin is a Priestess of Donblas, serving as a custom-voiced “smart” AI follower who specializes in healing and de-buff spells. She has a lot of configuration options, but players should feel free to leave them on the default settings if they’re feeling overwhelmed. She has her own backstory and quest content too, making her feel more connected to the world.

8. Valfar

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25360/

One of the major questlines in Skyrim is the civil war between the Stormcloaks and Imperials, but it seems like most of the followers in the game don’t really have much invested in the battle, not even the Housecarls assigned by the local Jarls. Valfar is different, though — he’s a Stormcloak through and through. According to his description on NexuxMods, Valfar is “fully voiced, hairy, intoxicated and ever happy to bash some Elf skulls in!” Be sure to grab Valfar if you want to keep Skyrim for the Nords!

7. Aurora and Twilight

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52115

Aurora and Twilight are actually two versions of the same character, both of whom are voiced by Anna Castiglioni (AKA Anduniel). This mod is easily among the top best voiced follower mods for Skyrim. Aurora can be found at the Temple of Kynareth in Whiterun, where you can start her quest, but what’s interesting about this mod is that it includes a “Body Changer” spell that can be used to summon Twilight and modify the hair, style, and body types of both characters. You can even make them into vampires and werewolves! It’s a little heavy on the fan service, but the mod gets big points for versatility.

6. Recorder

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4718

Recorder is a student from a mysterious academy who was sent to document the Dragonborn’s adventures. Once you’ve downloaded the mod, you can find her at the Sleeping Giant’s Inn in Riverwood. Fans love Recorder for her quirky (and sometimes borderline insane) personality, and her mysterious origin story that she can’t explain due to “protocols.” She likes to comment on various locations and even likes to sing sometimes. She’s a skilled dual wielder who’s also good at archery and sneaking. A must-have for fans interested in slowly unraveling a mystery.

5. Faallokaar

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49702

Human companions are cool and all, but what if you could have a dragon for a follower? Allow us to introduce Faallokaar, a fully voiced dragon follower. Unlike Odahviing, who must be summoned, Faallokaar is an actual follower who will walk the trails and paths of Skyrim by your side. There are two different versions of him. The ‘Yol’ version comes in lava colors and breathes fire, while the ‘Fo’ version has glacial coloring and breathes ice. You can even use a custom shout to transform him into a human when you don’t need a giant dragon following you down into dungeons!

4. Hoth

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/24666

Not everyone who plays Skyrim wants to be a hero. Some gamers choose to walk a darker path. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was another, more morally ambiguous option in the game? Hoth is an old bounty hunter who likes to wear trophies from his best kills…monsters and men alike.

One of the more unique features about Hoth is that he actually picks up bounties based off your location and shares them with you, generating an infinite number of quests so there’s always something to do. You can find this fully voiced character at the Morthal Inn as soon as you download the mod.

3. Young Santa Claus

Download Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2311743549&searchtext=follower

One of the most popular follower mods on the Steam Workshop is Young Santa Claus. Players who desire to meet the legendary sleigh rider back before his beard turned white and his stomach shook like a bowl full of jelly can do so at the Candlehearth Inn in Windhelm. He and his two elf followers like to distribute food, dolls, and wooden swords, and the man himself can become a follower. The elves use bows while Santa prefers to keep a katana in one hand and spells in the other, so be good for goodness’ sake!

2. Inigo

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960

If you’ve looked into Skyrim follower mods at all than you’ve probably bumped into Inigo before. He is a Khajiit warrior who has over 7,000 lines of unique, fully voiced dialogue. He even whispers instead of speaking at a normal volume when sneaking! He also levels alongside you and features many of the bonus abilities you usually need additional mods for. Downloading the mod also places several notes about your new feline companion throughout the world, so you can learn about him as you journey together. You can find him next to Sibbi Black-Briar in the Riften Jail. Inigo was very nearly our #1 pick for the best Skyrim follower mod.

1. Sofia

Download Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2180

The number one spot on our list of the best new follower mods goes to Sofia. This foul-mouthed adventurer is voiced by Dutch actress Christine Slagman (finalCrystine). According to her NexusMods page, “Sofia is fully location and quest aware (currently just the main quest and bounty quests) and will comment on the player character and her surroundings. She has her own custom dialogue system which allows for longer and more detailed dialogue.”

More than that though, players love her for her unique sense of humor. The dialogue is exceptionally well written and though she likes the Dragonborn, she’s not above ribbing them a little bit here and there. In our opinion, this is also the best female follower mod for Skyrim.

Join the High Ground

Thank you for reading our guide on the best Skyrim follower mods. We hope one of them helps keep your journey interesting as you explore the frozen north of Tamriel. Be sure to follow High Ground Gaming for guides, reviews and more lists like this one.

Happy gaming!