Level Up (A5E) Followers Best Practices?

[Morrus]

Absolutely, but I always want the flavor to mean something mechanically, and that means for me they treated as NPCs.

Sure, you can use whatever house rules you like in your home game. That goes without saying. I can only speak to what the intent of the rules is.

 

[kigmatzomat]

For those of you that use A5E's followers, what are your best practices for making them be used and useful? Actually remembered?

I've used followers/companions/retainers etc. in many games- I think their most successful implementation in my games was using MCDM Strongholds & Followers' retainers in a long-running West Marches game. When I got A5E I was very interested in how they handled followers, but so far they've become a forgettable feature in a long list of character features
It seems like if a follower isn't participating in combat, they're not going to be notable by the players.
I'd love to hear how y'all use the A5E followers to positive effect!

You may be using them as intended. "...followers never participate directly in encounters. They fade into the background and come to the fore occasionally when their particular skill is needed. ..."

Followers are always in that rough zone of needing to not be stars but also not forgotten. Not sure if its over the top, but you could add table rules like "if you don't use the follower's name in the prior session, you don't get their bonus this session."