When a charcter wins in batlle another character can he take followers and trophies?

When you are said to lose a life can you sacrifice a floower insted?

From page 12 of the manual regarding battles between players

5. Claim Reward
The winner may either force the loser to lose one life
(which may be saved by use of an Object or Spell), or may
take one Object or one gold from the loser to add to his
own. If the winner kills the loser by forcing him to lose
his last remaining life, the winner may take any Objects,
Followers, and gold from the loser to add to his own.
Any Objects, Followers, and gold not taken are left on the
space. The turn then ends.

So, You can not take followers unless you take the other players last life, and then you can have all of them. You can never take trophies, trophies aren't real anyways they are just a way of keeping track of experience.

By default followers can not be sacrificed to prevent the loss of life. However, some specific followers do have that ability printed on their cards, others will allow you various ways to heal lives.