darkknight109 posted...
Never used one outside of the quests. They all seemed bland and uninteresting and I didn't feel like having to babysit an NPC when whatever benefits they provided seemed nominal at best.
Apart from Serana, certain followers - Mjoll, Erandur, Telydrn Sero, Erik the Slayer, and the other five Hirelings - have unique extra dialogue for commenting on situations and / or giving you various snippets of their life stories (and unlike Serana, most of said situational dialogue isn't just complaining about whatever you're doing). Cicero and
Lucien LaChance's ghost
also have extra situational dialogue. None of it will move you to tears, but it's at least a noteworthy step above the stock dialogue of the majority of followers.
And certain followers can be very effective combat-wise. Jenassa is a natural dual-wielder, and Marcurio will wreck the shit out of enemies through the early and midgame due to having access to Chain Lightning from the start. Plus having a follower to soak up damage can be invaluable at low levels if you're playing a glass-cannon mage on high difficulty.