So I've hit an interesting problem, and by that I mean annoying. My follower is harder to kill than I am. I know I'm a squishy mage and he's clanging around in Ebony so that's really to be expected, but it's like the guy never takes any damage, at all, ever. I've got no complaints over the kind of control I have over him now, but I'm not happy to reload three times because I keep dying while he gets swamped with twice as many enemies and doesn't even need a potion. And I know he doesn't have any elemental resistances but mages don't hurt him either.

Is there some god mode setting I missed? Or is this part of the "essential" flag that is just part and parcel of not wanting to reload three times because HE got slaughtered?