Conjuration followers keep dying to AoE—is the spell just bad or am I using it wrong?

[RiftenWanderer]

Playing a conjurer on my second run (level 31, Adept difficulty) and I keep summoning atronachs or dremora lords into dragon breath or spell explosions and watching them get obliterated instantly. It feels like they're paper thin compared to actual followers like Lydia. Am I supposed to be positioning them differently, or is conjuration just not viable for tough fights without babysitting them the whole time?

 

[DragonbornVet]

Conjuration summons are genuinely fragile compared to actual followers, yeah. They have way less health and armor than Lydia, and the AI doesn't position them well - they just run straight at enemies. But it's not unviable, you're just using them wrong for tough fights.

The real trick is that they're better as damage dealers than tanks. Don't summon them into a dragon fight and expect them to survive - summon them when you're already engaging, or better yet, use them to pull aggro while you nuke from range with destruction spells or a bow. Frost atronachs are actually decent because they can slow enemies down. Dremora Lords hit hard but yeah, they die fast if you're not careful.

If you want them to last longer, grab the perks that boost their health - there's one in the Conjuration tree that augments your summoned creatures, makes a noticeable difference. Also make sure you're actually leveling Conjuration past Expert if you can; higher skill = stronger summons. And honestly, if you're on Adept, dual-summoning (summoning two at once with the right perk) trivializes most fights because enemies can't focus everything on one target.

That said, if you want actual tanky followers who survive AoE, you might just want to grab Lydia or recruit someone else instead. Conjuration is more about action economy - you're not replacing a tank, you're getting an extra body to deal with while you do the real damage.

 

[TamrielTactician]

Yeah, that's solid advice. One thing I'd add though - positioning matters way more than people realize. Your summons will aggro everything in the room, but they don't have the survivability to tank it like a real follower. So if you're summoning into a dragon fight, you're basically feeding it a snack while you get set up.

What actually works is summoning them after you've already engaged or pulled the enemy's attention. Summon a frost atronach while you're actively fighting something, and it'll get in some hits and slow things down without eating a full dragon breath to the face immediately. Same with Dremora Lords - they're glass cannons, not meat shields. Use them when you know the enemy is already committed to fighting you, not as an opener.

Also - and this is something people miss - if you're getting one-shot by AoE, your Conjuration skill might just be too low. Summons scale with your skill level, so a level 31 conjurer's atronach is legitimately fragile. You're not doing anything wrong, they're just weak at that level. By the time you hit like 60+ Conjuration, they tank noticeably better. Not Lydia-tier, but better.

If you hate babysitting them, honestly just don't use them for dragons or tough bosses. They're perfect for dungeons with multiple weak enemies or when you're mobbed by bandits. Let them handle the grunts while you focus fire on the actual threat.