In the followers section, is the skill die to be used for all of the follower's actions, or only for specific types of actions for the follower?  If it is for specific actions, how does one determine those actions?  I couldn't find any specifics in the text.

Thanks!

Hey creiht, yes the skill die is intended to be used for all skill checks and acts as a simplified way of measuring their competence (like the monsters skill die). 

As the referee, you could make a ruling to decide where it may not be appropriate to use though (i.e. magic checks for example as any magic casting people are likely to have hero status and not a run of the mill NPC status)

Thanks for the question, hope the clarification is of use (and it's a subtle way of me getting some feedback on things which may be obvious to me I wrote it but not so obvious to someone who is reading the rules).

Thanks for the clarification, and that does help.  The main reason that I asked is that, for example, a follower of level 4 would have a d8 for all actions that they might make, but when they leveled up to a local hero, it would basically be a downgrade for them, since most skills would be level 0 with some d4 and maybe a d6 or two, if that makes sense?  I do like the idea of using it in the area that they are likely to have competence.

The other reason I bring it up, is that as I was considering solo play, I thought it would be interesting to use a slightly modified follower as a type of side kick.   In this case, the follower would likely be a bit more involved performing actions.

Yes, there's a bit of a drop if an NPC goes from 'NPC' status to 'Hero' status. You could bump the NPC straight to a level 2 hero which would probably smooth it out. As the referee you have freedom to play around with the attributes of NPCs to get them at the level you want. Good insight, thanks for the feedback.

Old thread I know, but would it make sense to eg. assign the die to two appropriate skills of the NPC at lvl 2, and give them another at each higher level?