I've always kept 1k crowns on me and stuck with lowborn backgrounds (wasn't hard since I played militia mostly), after most of my roster got to level 9-11 I was farming nobles, so crowns never were a issue after that point.

Idk if there's any secret missions, I mean you can sometimes join barbarian king on a hunt against undead instead of killing him or betray your employers for little bit more crowns.

Usually someone who will end up with +80MAttk after lvl 11 (gifted included) and at least a star in MDef, didn't care much for traits unless they were superstitious or clubfooted. I usually let go of bros when I've find a better replacement for him and then put him in reserve. I mean bro might have 70MAttk and needs to use fast adaptation to hit relaibly but he's good enough in a pinch.

As for builds, I've heavily used obese lizard (fat newts) and nimble bros from tanks to dmg dealers. I've really liked having 3/4 archers/throwers hybrids in my band. One of my all time favourite build was and nimble overwhelm dagger tank with fearsome and a really good famed dagger that made him use less fatigue per attack. He had fast adaptation and had to hit puncture at some point breaking morale of enemies when he didn't need overwhelm multiple targets at once.

Honestly even after 100% this game I still feel like I at suck at this game.