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Long story short: my loyal follower Lydia is now a Blade. Upon taking her oath, she got full set of Blades armor and it became her default armor meaning it's not seen in her inventory - not even when pickpocketing her.

I also got my own full set of Blades armor and being good hearted thane decided to improve it and give to Lydia so she will have better chance surviving the oncoming battles. I improved it all to Epic and gave to her, however she just won't wear it, staying with her default and plain set.

  1. The armor rating is much better in every piece of armor.
  2. If I give her different type of armor with better rate she wear it on spot.

So, while it's quite obvious what's causing this issue I have no idea how to "fix" it other than killing her, taking the plain set from her body then revive her with console. So far I managed without console and really hope to keep my hands clean.

I went over all answers in this related question and the one suggesting using a mod sounds promising, but prefer to hear someone confirming this mod before installing it.

Any ideas? Maybe there is a way to make her resign from the Blades?

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There is a good answer here –  Taz Apr 16 '12 at 7:40
I understand and share your aversion to using the console, but fixing/working around bugs is where I draw the line and use it. –  Rick Apr 16 '12 at 7:59
@Taz thanks but both answers just repeat stuff already answered in the other question I linked to. –  Shadow Wizard Apr 16 '12 at 8:07
Is this PC? If not, we could omit the solutions involving the developer console. –  DrFish Apr 16 '12 at 8:35
@Bora not sure it's a good thing to apply this - having skyrim-pc synonymised with skyrim would be better choice IMO - but guess it's a topic for Meta discussion. –  Shadow Wizard Apr 16 '12 at 8:45
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4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

The mod you linked to, TCG - Tradable Companion Gear can indeed allow you to remove all of your follower's equipment, even those that are considered part of your follower's "default gear" (doesn't appear in the follower's inventory, and is unremovable in the vanilla game) - the Blades armor, in this case.

TCG is now also part of a bigger follower ovehaul mod, UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul. They are made by the same author.

TCG description from its webpage:

  • All followers gear can be traded.
  • Default hidden bow and arrows are tradable and not respawnable.
  • Followers will not revert to default outfits or unequip gear even if dismissed.
  • Followers will wear what is placed in their inventory.

With TCG or UFO, just open up the item inventory screen of Lydia and remove her default Blades armor, and then put in the improved Blades armor that you have.

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Thanks, TCG sounds just enough. You speak from experience? –  Shadow Wizard Apr 16 '12 at 10:03
@ShadowWizard Yes, but with UFO (which is a follower overhaul mod that also contains TCG's functionality in it). (TCG and UFO have the same author.) I've removed Aranea Ienith's 'default' blue mage robes with it (she prefers it to the much better Archmage's Robes). –  galacticninja Apr 16 '12 at 10:10
I installed a mod from steamcommunity.com in the past and saw somewhere it's better not to mix mods from skyrim.nexusmods.com as well - guess such thing is not worth the risk. Tried this mod but it did not have any effect. –  Shadow Wizard Apr 17 '12 at 21:02
@ShadowWizard I don't see any reason why you shouldn't mix mods from Steam Workshop and Skyrim Nexus (they're both just websites where you can download mods; some mods are available at both websites). Just use BOSS (Better Oblivion Sorting Software) to automatically set the optimal load order of the mods, before running the game. Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) can handle the mods downloaded from Steam Workshop and Skyrim Nexus just fine, AFAIK. –  galacticninja Apr 18 '12 at 6:21
@ShadowWizard NMM can only uninstall mods installed through NMM, though, AFAIK. I'm also interested in knowing where you've read that it's better not to mix mods from Nexus and the Steam Workshop. –  galacticninja Apr 18 '12 at 6:23
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IF you are playing on the PC, the following steps should work:

  • Open the console
  • Click on her face
  • Type removeallitems and press Enter
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You can not see her armor because she has it equipped. This prevents you from stealing it via pick pocketing unless you have the perk that allows you to do just that, take what is equipped.

When having the same suit of armor but you have improved it either through smithing or enchanting the gear, the only way that the NPC will equip it is if it was their gear to begin with. This means you have to steal what they are wearing, boost its abilities in any way you see if and then return it to them before the magical tick time that will respawn their gear.

If you do a bit of browsing on some fan sites (I recommend the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Project's Wiki) you can even find a list of NPCs and how many pieces of 'natural' gear they have that you can then take and improve for them. Maybe someone will be kind enough to edit that URL in here for the both of us.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks, I really tried to pickpocket while she was wearing it and being a warrior never bothered to put any perks into pick pocketing. You gave me an idea though - will try it first and come back after trying. :) –  Shadow Wizard Apr 16 '12 at 8:43
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Take all the stuff that's in her inventory . Then give her your swanky blades armor . If you are worried about Lydia dying then don't. Only you can kill your follower . They will withstand infinite amount of hurt from enemies but not from you


Yes. Go to the temple and talk to Lydia . When the dialog menu pops up select the follow me option .

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Nope - she died several times all by herself when fighting big bosses or horde of enemies. Selecting "follow me" is not making her quit or resign anything - she's still a Blade just following me. –  Shadow Wizard Apr 16 '12 at 8:06
I downvoted your answer because clearly you have no idea what your talking about. –  Paralytic Apr 16 '12 at 8:24
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