Steward guide

Bannerlord v1.5.7 · checked 2026-11-12 · updated 2026-11-13

This guide explains what every Steward perk and the Steward skill effect really do: party size, wages, food, morale, carry capacity, troop training, and the governor bonuses for taxes, construction, militia and garrison food. It is for game version v1.5.7; where a tooltip says one thing and the game does another, you get the game's version. NavalDLC extends the battle morale, building construction, carry capacity, food consumption, party morale, troop training, troop upgrade cost, wage and recruitment cost, militia, prosperity and workshop models, and extends and replaces parts of the clan finance and party size limit models. Several Steward perks carry the tooltip line "Land only" or "Reduced effect at sea", and the sea has its own wage rules. StoryMode extends the party size limit and wage and recruitment cost models in the story campaign. SandBox holds the battle morale code that Price of Loyalty uses. The exact formulas, edge cases and links to the game code are in the deep dives: Party and map (wages, recruitment, upgrades, party size, troop XP, food, carry capacity, morale), Settlements (taxes, tariffs, militia, construction, buildings, hearths, town food), Battles (battle morale), Sieges (siege engine construction), Characters and politics (companion hiring, troop donation influence), Crafting and trade (trade penalty) and Naval campaign (the at-sea rules).

Who counts as "the quartermaster". Most Steward perks are read from your party's quartermaster: the clan member you assigned to the Quartermaster role in that party, or the party leader when nobody holds the role. Some halves are read from the party leader, a few from your own character, and the settlement halves from the governor. Many governor halves also need the governor to actually be in the settlement; each perk below says when that check is missing.

What the verdicts mean. works: does what the tooltip says, or more (broader effects are noted). differs: narrower, different, or with extra conditions or values compared with the tooltip. unused: never read by the game. ui_only: only shown in the interface.

What unlocks what

Every 25 points of Steward opens a new pair. You pick one perk of each pair; the other is locked for that hero.

How wage and food bonuses add up

Party wages and party food follow the same pattern: the game takes a starting value and adds up all percentage bonuses and penalties, then applies the total once. Percentages do not multiply each other: Frugal's −5% next to Efficient Campaigner's −25% is simply −30%.

Daily wage = wages of all troops and paid heroes × (1 + sum of all percentage bonuses and penalties), at least 0

• Wages of all troops: every troop's wage times its count. Wounded troops are paid too.
• Paid heroes: heroes in the party draw a wage, except a clan leader and, in your own party, lords of your clan.
• Percentage bonuses and penalties: Frugal, Efficient Campaigner, Contractors, Master of Warcraft, Price of Loyalty, perks from other skills, policies, the party leader's Generosity trait, the at-sea reduction and more.

Daily food = party members plus half the prisoners, divided by 20 × (1 + sum of all percentage bonuses and penalties), at least 0.01

• Party members plus half the prisoners: the prisoners are halved and rounded down; a party always eats at least as if it had one man.
• Percentage bonuses and penalties: Warrior's Diet, Stiff Upper Lip, Sound Reserves, Master of Planning, Price of Loyalty, perks from other skills, the party leader's Generosity trait and the at-sea reduction.

Tier 1 (Steward 25): Frugal or Warrior's Diet

Frugal

• Primary, −5% wages (quartermaster; works). Cuts the party's daily wage by 5%. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, −15% recruitment costs (party leader; works). Every troop you recruit costs 15% less when the hero paying leads a party that has the perk on its leader. In the story campaign's tutorial, the placeholder volunteers cost a flat 50 and Frugal does not reduce them.

Warrior's Diet

• Primary, −10% food consumption (quartermaster; works). The party eats 10% less food a day. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, no morale penalty from a single type of food (party leader; differs). A party with one type of food (or none) takes −2 morale, and with two types −1. Warrior's Diet removes both penalties, so it covers two food types as well, not only one. It also works at sea, although the tooltip says land only, and a starving party gets no food variety effect at all.

Which one? Frugal saves money every day and on every recruit. Warrior's Diet saves food and spares you buying a varied pantry early on.

Tier 2 (Steward 50): Drill Sergeant or Seven Veterans

Drill Sergeant

• Primary, +2 daily experience to troops (quartermaster; works). Each troop in the party gains 2 experience a day while the party is active on the map. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, −5% garrison wages (governor; works). The garrison of the town or castle this hero governs is paid 5% less. The governor has to be in the settlement.

Seven Veterans

• Primary, +4 daily experience for tier 4+ troops (quartermaster; differs). This does nothing. The game checks the perk and the troop tier, then asks for the perk's experience value, and that lookup does not know Seven Veterans, so it returns 0. Your tier 4+ troops gain no experience from it.
• Secondary, "+0.1% veteran militia rate" (governor; differs). The game does two things here, neither of them what the tooltip says:
  • The chance that a newly spawned militia troop is a veteran gets +0.1. That chance runs from 0 to 1, so it is +10 percentage points, not +0.1%. It also covers villages whose trade town this hero governs; the governor has to be in that town.
  • The governed town or castle also gains +0.1 militia a day (governor present), which the tooltip does not mention.

Which one? Seven Veterans is a governor perk only: its party half does nothing, but its militia half adds militia and makes more of them veterans. Drill Sergeant applies to the hero who leads or supplies your party.

Tier 3 (Steward 75): Stiff Upper Lip or Sweatshops

Stiff Upper Lip

• Primary, −10% food consumption in an army (quartermaster; works). The party eats 10% less while it is part of an army. "Reduced effect at sea", as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, −20% garrison wages in the governed castle (governor; works). Castles only, not towns. The governor has to be in the castle.

Sweatshops

• Primary, +20% workshop production (your own perk; works). Every workshop you own produces 20% faster. It is read on the workshop owner, so it has to be on your own character.
• Secondary, +20% siege engine build rate (quartermaster; differs). The game checks the leader party of the besieging camp, whichever side is building. So only the camp leader's quartermaster counts (not "your party" unless you lead the siege), and the bonus also speeds up the defenders' engines.

Which one? Sweatshops on your own character pays off if you own several workshops. Stiff Upper Lip is for a quartermaster who spends time in armies, or a castle governor.

Tier 4 (Steward 100): Efficient Campaigner or Paid in Promise

Efficient Campaigner

• Primary, +1 food for each food taken in a raid (party leader; differs). Every food item your party loots while raiding a village comes with one extra unit. The tooltip says "Land only", but the main raid loot check ignores it, so raids from the sea get the extra food too.
• Secondary, −25% wages in an army (quartermaster; works). The party's wage drops 25% while it is in an army. "Reduced effect at sea", as the tooltip shows.

Worked example. A party on land, part of an army, pays 1000 a day before perks. Its quartermaster has Steward 300, so Price of Loyalty counts 50 points above 250, and also has Frugal and Efficient Campaigner:

A party on land that is part of an army, paying 1000 a day before perks, its quartermaster at Steward 300 with Frugal, Efficient Campaigner and Price of Loyalty. Inputs: total wage 1000.

With these inputs, party daily wage is 450.0000.

The three cuts add up to −55% of the same 1000, so the party pays 450.0000 a day. At sea Frugal is off ("Land only") and Efficient Campaigner has a reduced effect.

Paid in Promise

• Primary, −25% companion wages and recruitment fees (party leader; works). Every paid hero in the leader's party costs 25% less a day, not only companions. And when you lead a party, hiring a companion costs 25% less.
• Secondary, donated armor gives troop experience (quartermaster; works). When you discard armor from your inventory, your troops gain experience for it. The amount depends on the item's tier: 75, 150, 250, or 300 for the highest tiers, and 35 for anything else, times the number of items. Your own party only.

Which one? Efficient Campaigner if you fight in armies a lot. Paid in Promise if you carry many companions and want to turn spare armor into troop XP.

Tier 5 (Steward 125): Giving Hands or Logistician

Giving Hands

• Primary, donated weapons give troop experience (quartermaster; works). The weapon version of Paid in Promise's secondary: discarding weapons gives your troops experience by item tier, same amounts. Your own party only. Taking both Giving Hands and Paid in Promise covers weapons and armor.
• Secondary, +10% tariff income (governor; works). The governed town's tariff income rises 10%. The governor has to be in the town.

Logistician

• Primary, +4 morale when mounts outnumber foot troops (quartermaster; works). The party gets +4 morale when it has more mounts than troops who are not mounted. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, +10% tax income (governor; works). The governed town or castle pays 10% more tax (governor present). On top of that, every village bound to that settlement pays 10% more income, and for the villages the governor does not need to be present.

Which one? Logistician's governor half raises both tax and village income. Giving Hands is for players who loot a lot of weapons and want to train troops with them.

Tier 6 (Steward 150): Aid Corps or Relocation

Aid Corps

• Primary, wounded troops are no longer paid (quartermaster; differs). On land this does nothing: the game looks at how many troops are wounded and then ignores it, and the wage always counts every troop. At sea it only shrinks the shares used by two Boatswain wage perks; your wages are not reduced. See Naval campaign.
• Secondary, +20% hearth growth in bound villages (governor; differs). Villages that belong to the governed town or castle grow hearths 20% faster, but only while the village is in its normal state, not looted or being raided. The tooltip does not say that. The governor has to be in the settlement.

Relocation

• Primary, +25% influence from donating troops (quartermaster; differs). Donating troops gives 25% more influence, but only when the party's leader and its quartermaster both have the perk. A quartermaster with Relocation under a leader without it gives nothing.
• Secondary, +20% effect from boosting projects (governor; works). Each construction boost you buy in the governed settlement is worth 20% more. The governor does not need to be present.

Which one? Aid Corps' party half does nothing; its governor half is the hearth bonus.

Tier 7 (Steward 175): Gourmet or Sound Reserves

Gourmet

• Primary, double the morale from diverse food (quartermaster; works). Food variety gives morale once a party has more than three types of food, up to +10. Gourmet adds the same amount again, so it doubles the bonus. The tooltip says "Reduced effect at sea".
• Secondary, −10% garrison food during sieges (governor; works). While the governed town or castle is under siege, its garrison eats 10% less (governor present). The AI's estimate of how large a garrison the town can feed counts this as well, and that estimate does not check that the governor is present.

Sound Reserves

• Primary, −10% troop upgrade costs (quartermaster; works). Upgrading troops costs 10% less gold.
• Secondary, −10% food during sieges (quartermaster; works). The party eats 10% less while it is part of a siege.

Which one? Sound Reserves is always on and saves gold on every upgrade. Gourmet applies if you keep a well-stocked, varied pantry.

Tier 8 (Steward 200): Contractors or Forced Labor

Contractors

• Primary, −25% wages and upgrade costs of mercenaries (quartermaster; works). Mercenary troops in your party cost 25% less in wages; the game applies it as a cut on the whole wage, in proportion to the mercenaries' share of it. Upgrading mercenaries costs 25% less, and so does upgrading gangster troops, which the tooltip does not mention.
• Secondary, +10% town project effects (governor; works). Every building in the governed town or castle gives 10% more of its effect. The governor has to be present.

Forced Labor

• Primary, prisoners carry goods like troops (quartermaster; differs). Healthy prisoners are counted as troops for carry capacity, so each one adds as much as a troop. Only your own party's prisoners count (not those of parties attached to you), which the tooltip does not say. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, "+1% construction speed per every 3 prisoners" (governor; differs). Two parts, both with the governor in the settlement:
  • a flat +1% construction speed, always, which the tooltip does not mention;
  • while a project is being built and the settlement holds prisoners, +1% for every 3 prisoners, counted exactly rather than in whole groups of 3, and never more than +30%.

Which one? Contractors if you run a mercenary-heavy army or govern a town with many buildings. Forced Labor if you take many prisoners and want both carry capacity and faster construction.

Tier 9 (Steward 225): Arenicos' Horses or Arenicos' Mules

Arenicos' Horses

• Primary, +10% carrying capacity for troops (quartermaster; works). Your healthy troop count is raised 10% (rounded) for carry capacity. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, −20% trade penalty for mounts (party leader; works). Buying and selling horses and other mounts loses you less to the merchant's cut. Read on the leader of the trading party. More in Crafting and trade.

Arenicos' Mules

• Primary, +20% pack animal capacity (quartermaster; works). Pack animals carry 20% more. Land only, as the tooltip shows.
• Secondary, −20% trade penalty for pack animals (quartermaster; works). Cheaper trading of pack animals.

Which one? Arenicos' Mules if you haul trade goods with many pack animals; Arenicos' Horses if your party is large and you trade horses.

Tier 10 (Steward 250): Master of Planning or Master of Warcraft

Master of Planning

• Primary, −40% food in a siege camp (quartermaster; works). While your party is part of a besieging camp, it eats 40% less.
• Secondary, +20% effectiveness of continuous projects (governor; works). The daily projects of the governed settlement (the ones that run every day instead of being built once) give 20% more. The governor has to be present.

Worked example. A party of 100 men with 20 prisoners, part of an army besieging a castle. Its quartermaster has Warrior's Diet, Stiff Upper Lip, Sound Reserves and Master of Planning. The 20 prisoners count as 10, so the party starts at 110 ÷ 20 food a day (shown as a negative number, food lost):

A party of 100 men with 20 prisoners, part of an army besieging a castle, its quartermaster with Warrior's Diet, Stiff Upper Lip, Sound Reserves and Master of Planning. Inputs: members 100, prisoners 20.

With these inputs, party daily food consumption (negative) is -1.6500.

The four perks add up to −70%, and the party eats 1.6500 food a day instead of 5.5000.

Master of Warcraft

• Primary, −25% wages in a siege camp (quartermaster; works). While your party is part of a besieging camp, its daily wage drops 25%.
• Secondary, −5% food eaten by the town population (governor; differs). The governed settlement's population eats 5% less (governor present), as written. The AI's estimate of how large a garrison the town can feed, though, applies the 5% to the garrison's food instead of the population's, and it does not check that the governor is present.

Which one? Both main halves only matter while besieging. Master of Planning cuts food while besieging and its daily project bonus keeps paying in peace; Master of Warcraft saves gold during long sieges.

Tier 11 (Steward 275): Price of Loyalty

• Primary, −0.5% food, wages and combat morale loss for each Steward point above 250 (quartermaster; differs). The quartermaster's Steward above 250 cuts four things at once: the party's daily wage, its daily food, the morale its side loses in battle when one of its troops falls, and the morale loss when one of its troops panics. All of them work as written, with one exception for the fallen troop: when the troop is only knocked unconscious and the party's surgeon has Health Advice, Health Advice already sets that morale loss to zero and Price of Loyalty is not applied. See Battles.
• Secondary, +0.5% tax for each Steward point above 200 (governor; works). The governed town or castle pays more tax for every Steward point the governor has above 200. The governor does not need to be present.

Price of Loyalty (party) = −0.5% × (quartermaster's Steward − 250)

Price of Loyalty (tax) = +0.5% × (governor's Steward − 200)

• Quartermaster's Steward: the skill of your party's quartermaster; nothing below 250 counts.
• Governor's Steward: the governor's skill; it counts from 200, even though the perk itself needs 275.

Worked example. A town with prosperity 5000 pays 0.35 × prosperity in tax before bonuses. Its governor has Steward 300 with Logistician and Price of Loyalty:

A town with prosperity 5000, its governor at Steward 300 with Logistician and Price of Loyalty. Inputs: prosperity 5000.

With these inputs, daily tax of a town or castle is 2800.0000.

Price of Loyalty counts 100 points above 200 and adds +50%; with Logistician's +10% the tax rises from 1750.0000 to 2800.0000 a day.

Skill effects

This comes from the Steward skill itself, no perk needed.

• Party size, +0.25 per point (quartermaster; works). The party's size limit grows by 0.25 for every Steward point of its quartermaster. It applies to parties led by a hero of a clan, not to caravans. The AI also uses the lord's own Steward when it estimates how large a lord's party will be.

Worked example. A party led by a clan member who is not the clan leader, in a tier 3 clan, with a quartermaster at Steward 200:

A party led by a clan member who is not the clan leader, in a tier 3 clan, with a quartermaster at Steward 200.

With these inputs, party member size limit is 115.0000.

The quartermaster's Steward adds 50.0000 men, for a limit of 115.0000.

What the skill level itself does

The game also reads your Steward level directly, without any perk. Effects that depend on any skill level are listed once in the skills guide.

Who the perks work for

Who counts as you, a relative or a wanderer, and why some halves skip one of them, is explained in the Skills guide.

Every other Steward perk half and skill effect works for every hero: you, relatives and wanderers.

All Steward effects

Every effect site of the Steward perks, skill effects and skill level. Values are what each site applies; a value that grows with skill is shown at the perk's required skill (skill effects and skill levels: per skill point). ×N marks N identical sites.

Practical tips

• Put your highest-Steward companion in the Quartermaster role. Nearly every party perk and the party size bonus are read from the hero in the Quartermaster role. A companion with high Steward in that role helps the whole party even if your own Steward is low.
• Some perks stay with the leader or with you. Frugal's recruit discount, Warrior's Diet's morale, Efficient Campaigner's raid food and Paid in Promise's hero wages need the perk on the party leader. Sweatshops' workshops are read on your own character; Arenicos' Horses' mount trading on the party leader. Relocation needs both the leader and the quartermaster.
• Halves that do nothing. Seven Veterans' troop XP and Aid Corps' wounded wages do nothing. Seven Veterans still works as a governor perk: more militia, and +10 percentage points of veteran chance.
• Governors should stay home. Many governor halves only work while the governor is in the settlement. Logistician's village income, Relocation's boosts and Price of Loyalty's tax work even when the governor is away.
• Steward is a siege skill too. Sound Reserves, Master of Planning and Master of Warcraft cut food and wages while besieging, and Gourmet keeps a besieged garrison fed longer.
• At sea, check the tooltip's environment line. Frugal, Warrior's Diet (primary), Drill Sergeant, Efficient Campaigner (primary), Logistician, Forced Labor and the Arenicos' Horses and Arenicos' Mules primaries are "Land only"; Stiff Upper Lip, Efficient Campaigner (secondary) and Gourmet's extra morale say "Reduced effect at sea". Warrior's Diet's morale half and Efficient Campaigner's raid food still work at sea. See Naval campaign for what applies at sea.
• Price of Loyalty rewards going past 275. Every extra Steward point keeps cutting wages and food and raising tax.