Platform follower AI

So I'm making a platform game and it has companions that follow the player around. I've been trying to create an engine for the follower but have had little success. I've tried various methods however most of them fail when I go to include their abilities (healing and reflecting projectiles) and also adding in the action of when they mount the players back and when the player flies (the followers can't fly).

If anyone has a method that they've used to achieve a smart following AI for a platformer or something similar then it will be greatly appreciated. I'm not the most experienced of programmers so any examples would be nice. 

Most games that do have advanced following AI, are games that have programmers who've learned in school how to do AI. Doing AI will most likely involve heavy programming.

I'm sure there will be problems you cannot get the AI a fix for, so your best bet is to make sure the player cannot do something you cannot let your AI do something helpful with.

A few basics that you would need:

pathfinding (find the best route from point A to point B), closest point (find the closest accessable point near where you want to be) and AI Action points (create interation points for the AI. When they get to one, that point will tell them how to act. Example: If enemy is still at location c, Stop here and get cover)