I have been reviewing Lure of Power's retainers to see about using them as NPC templates and when they make sense etc. What I have so far.

Valet (Lady in Waiting if female)

At 20 s/week, no financial return/offset this depends on style of play.

As the lowest tier servant, they are little different from Townsfolk (-1 St, fortune To, +1 Int and fortune Int, Fortune WP, minus Fortune Fel, +1 Wound, -4 A, +2 C, +2 E, same skull rating).

So they are a slightly smarter less burly commoner, the sort who gets advance by brains - can be used for those ones.

Herald

At 25 s/week, no financial return/offset this depends on style of play.

The herald doesn’t appear to have a direct NPC card parallel. They are a good “faceman” generally, such as ambassador, flim-flam artiste, etc. Frederick Grosz (Enemy Within) is the same skull rating and better on almost everything, so might be a better template for stronger version of such people.

Money Counter

At cost of 40 s/week, to break even on 5% return, need to have 800 shillings or 8 gold crowns, though that is less than the 20 gold wealth required.

It can be questioned if “personal wealth at least 20 gold” would that include gear or does it mean “disposable wealth” managed by the money counter? The passing reference on page 31 of Lure of Power suggests the wealth is the minimum amount available to invest and makes sense. The money counter does not need to count your plate armour.

I admit I have never run a campaign where "what do with a loose 20 gold crowns" was really something an individual PC needed to worry about.

A money counter is almost identical to the generic Merchant, take Merchant +1 Int, -1 Fel, +1 C. This reflects someone who doesn’t negotiate trades and do “salesmanship” so much as “run the office”.

Good generally as the NPC business manager or similarly a monk who handles the accounts for monastery.

Master Chef:

At 30 s/week the benefits in wound recovery and stress avoidance are pretty tasty! The fact up to 2 guests can benefit makes “regularly losing 10 shillings a week to the noble who pays the chef in bets” not a bad idea.

You would likely have otherwise used Specialist for a ‘master’ chef. The chef is +1 Ag and fortune on it, +1 Int but minus fortune on that (so moved to Ag), -1 WP, and R2 instead of C2 (chefs are known for volatility after all) – their damage rating is +1 (access to all those sharp things).

The card stats don’t say it though fluff suggest this might be a Halfling (we didn’t have Halflings from Hero’s Call when Lure of Power came out with retainers). You could “Halfling template” the chef (e.g., Str -1, Ag and Fel +1, Wounds -2, etc.).

I'm not sure what other roles I might use this one for but the basic idea of "varying Specialist" is of course sound.

Steward

Represents a typical Steward. Reinhart Blickson (Hero’s Call), for example, is one X more in rating with +2 wounds, +1 each of Int/Fel, additional fortune die WP, C3 not C2, +2 Exp dice.

At 30 s/week they pays for themselves once you have 3 other retainers (e.g., should always be acquired as 4 ^th retainer if not before).

Man at Arms

At 1 G/week, this is not a retainer to acquire on ongoing basis until you’ve got a decent income – it takes rank 4 to pay for that with monthly stipend.

The cost is in line with mercenary pay in PHB, though you might cut a break when not “on active service”. It’s not clear to me they’re really worth it long term – which is just as well as in fights the PC should be the focus - but do make good sense as short term hire.

They are similar to Soldiers with +1 Str, To, +1 C and +1 E, but -1 C (the ones who go into being well-employed aren’t quite as cunning as the independent sorts or soldiers that much scrounge). Nobles get a "bit better" soldier is also a way of looking at it (others can hire a soldier but get a soldier not the slightly better mercenary).

Homebrew Ones

What other roles make sense?

Groom or Houndsman to tend to horses or other animals, particularly if a knight. This could give mounts bonuses to resist harm from hazards, speed Stability recovery overnight or a bonus on Ride check.

Judicial Champions and Agent and Bailiffs etc. are all careers about serving nobles. The Herald can be seen as an Agent of sorts. I don't think a PC noble would really have cause to have the others most of the time and in a group they are better fulfilled by other PC's.

Final Thoughts

Money Counter

At cost of 40 s/week, to break even on 5% return, need to have 800 shillings or 8 gold crowns, though that is less than the 20 gold wealth required.

It can be questioned if “personal wealth at least 20 gold” would that include gear or does it mean “disposable wealth” managed by the money counter? The passing reference on page 31 of Lure of Power suggests the wealth is the minimum amount available to invest and makes sense. The money counter does not need to count your plate armour.

I admit I have never run a campaign where "what do with a loose 20 gold crowns" was really something an individual PC needed to worry about.

A money counter is almost identical to the generic Merchant, take Merchant +1 Int, -1 Fel, +1 C. This reflects someone who doesn’t negotiate trades and do “salesmanship” so much as “run the office”.

Good generally as the NPC business manager or similarly a monk who handles the accounts for monastery.

You would have to have 20GP in ready cash which would have to be left with the Money Counter for him to invest. Even jewellery and /or gems would not count here, I think, only coin of the realm or precious metal ingots. Watch out with this one as the more money you invest with this retainer the more you get back. A GM might want to limit how much money a money counter can handle at any one time, so a PC may have have to have a number of them, if the PC is seriously loaded.

Good point of clarification.

While I like "tidiness" of the money counter's effect (not lots of dice rolling, how well did we do), on one hand, it is a mighty good rate of return. Really, anyone who comes to you promising 5% a week is obviously some sort of scam artist playing on a soft-headed noble. Hand-waiving that, the game is about story not money and making profit should just drive a story (all the relatives come to stay, your overlord decides you can obviously equip a troop of halbediers etc. etc.).

Good point of clarification.

While I like "tidiness" of the money counter's effect (not lots of dice rolling, how well did we do), on one hand, it is a mighty good rate of return. Really, anyone who comes to you promising 5% a week is obviously some sort of scam artist playing on a soft-headed noble. Hand-waiving that, the game is about story not money and making profit should just drive a story (all the relatives come to stay, your overlord decides you can obviously equip a troop of halbediers etc. etc.).

It actually works out at 3% once the money counters wages come out, if the PC has only 20gp with the money counter, which is why I warned about having too much money invested with the money counter. Personally I would say that you need one money counter per 20gp that you have invested. That is still a heavy rate of return however, without any risk. My advice would be for the GM to roll a challenge dice a month and if a chaos star come up, then the 20gp controlled by one money counter has been lost through mismanagement or a very bad trade on "Averland leather futures". It makes it a bit more interesting that way.

I like the idea of retainers, but my players have never been close enough to be as wealthy to even consider retainers. But I have toyed with the idea of giving the knight in the party a man at arms just to get to use the cards.