Followers teleporting back to you mid-stealth is making me lose my mind

I'm on my 3rd playthrough, stealth archer (yeah yeah I know), and I've hit a wall where my follower keeps teleporting directly to me the second I enter combat, completely blowing my stealth. I'm using Lydia right now and it's gotten so bad I'm considering just dismissing her permanently.

I've tried telling her to wait, I've tried the "stay back" commands, I've even tried pickpocketing her gear so she can't engage, but nothing stops the teleport. It's like the game has a hard limit where if I'm in stealth and she gets too far away, she just pops into existence next to me. Ruins every single ambush I set up.

Is this just how followers work in the base game or am I missing something? I'm on SE with USSEP so it shouldn't be totally broken. Should I just accept that stealth builds don't work with followers, or is there actually a workaround that doesn't involve console commands?

Yeah that teleport behavior is baked into the base game - followers have a tether distance and will snap to you if they fall too far behind, especially in combat. It's super frustrating for stealth builds. The wait command helps but only if you tell them to wait before you engage, and even then they'll sometimes break wait and rush in anyway.

Honestly the best workaround I've found is just... not using followers for stealth stuff. I know that sucks to hear on your 3rd playthrough, but stealth archer genuinely plays better solo. The few times I've tried to make it work I ended up just dismissing my follower for dungeons and picking them back up after. Lydia's useful for carrying loot and tanking in regular combat, but she's a liability the second you want to sneak.

If you really want a follower though, have you tried just accepting the chaos and gearing them for damage instead? Like don't stress about stealth - let them charge in while you pick off stragglers from range. Totally different playstyle but it can actually be fun if you lean into it rather than fighting it.