I think that this was an intentional design decision. You only control one character. You can recruit NPC followers, but they're still NPCs and they make their own decisions.

That can occasionally be aggravating, but I suppose it's more realistic in some ways.

ok i understand why they chose to auto-level the NPCs but then, why can you see the list of different schemes when you cant cahnge them.
and that they pick the weapon they think is best sucks!

Well all the different auto level schemes are for the PC in case you really like the way one character levels or something like that - so you don't have to think about where to put points.

The NPCs can have some odd weapon choices. Sometimes I want one to just carry something but they insist on wearing it. Bit of a pain--but again, sort of like real-life with people just doing what they want.

but magnus wearing a magical staff?

Given how the AI handles everything else, that's not much of a surprise, really. It's something you learn to work around, I'm afraid.

Though I haven't played with this background before, wouldn't Educator allow you to train your NPC followers?

Edit: Sorry for necroposting. :P

I believe that background is supposed to let you control how your followers level up, but you still can't control them in combat or pick which weapons and armor they will use.

The Educator background CAN be really good, depending on your build. Essentially, it allows you to "train" your followers in skills you have a rank in (expert or master). Basically, your followers get a rank 1 level below yours in any skills you both have trained.

Example: I have the educator background and am a Melee Expert. All of my followers who have any ranks in the melee skill (which is pretty much all of the followers in the game) are now Apprentices. If I become the Melee Master, they would become Experts. This does not cost gold.

The trade-off is, you get one less follower. Probably worth it if you plan on having your followers attack/are picking up melee ones for backup. Outside Dodge and Melee, however, you get less utility out of that background. It is pretty cool, however, especially if you're roleplaying a professorial type (magic or tech).

To my knowledge, there is no way to influence a follower's skills/spells/etc outside using a hack program of some kind.

PS: A random tip for beginners. XP gain in this game is tied pretty directly to damage YOU deal. This can be damage dealt through guns, magic, swords, or even traps; but not followers or summons (i'm pretty sure about the summons, definite about the followers). So, the easiest path through the game (at first) is a pure melee build in turn-based mode. You can go tech for Charged Rings or magic for all the random magic loot drops; charisma and persuade are also fun to add in.

The Educator boost also works on Dog---being able to raise him to Expert at Dodge and Melee more than made up for losing one follower slot for the neutral (near zero on the magic/tech scale) swift-talking build I had. As far as I know Educator is the only way to get Dog up that high.

This is true, but I found a pure melee character to be too easy, and actually kind of boring. I recommend investing in some tech or magic in addition to melee just to make things more interesting. Also, "harder" characters can be more fun.

However, I would recommend a magically inclined character among the 'harder' sets for a beginner, or Smithing. For all that it was fun and exciting to play through the game as a pharmaceutical and therapeutic inventor, it could get a bit tedious. Tedious is something to do when you've already tried it the fact way.

I think you meant to say technologically inclined? Magic-aligned characters are generally considered easier than tech.

It's a different kind of easy from melee, though, making it 'harder.'

I agree that magic or tech splashed in can be fun; and you will most likely do that anyway once you have your melee skills maxed out. For me, though, I really had a hard time figuring this game out at first, and I actually had to cheat to beat it the first time or two. Once I got the hang of things and understood the system a bit better I didn't need to doctor my build; that's why I recommended a pure melee build at first. It will keep you alive long enough to see how awesome the rest of the game is :)

Or just go pure magic and spam Harm. that works too :P