Was super happy to see Bandit Lord get a Recruit Bandit Skill (as I recommended last year), and tying the skill to Gildar was genius.  Problem is, unlike Beasts, you're never really likely to run across more than 1-2 Bandit spawn points (if you're lucky) in most games when it counts.

A couple of thoughts to shore up the Profession

Recruitment! - A Bandit Lord only spell, costing money (not mana), will spawn a random # of bandit units (1-3) at one of your cities (also at random).  Thinking 50 gold?

Bandit group size should be upgradeable.  This could be either naturally on level up or have the player burn some money/fame representing your notoriety.  Cost could scale depending on current group size.

______________________________

Side Note/Tangent;  This is why I think more work needs to be done on Balancing the General Traits Tree.  If Generic Summon enhancment skills were in the General Tree, then a BeastMaster, Bandit Lord, etc..  would be able to benefit without specifically being limited to selecting the Mage Trait line.  Creature Summons should still be in non-General Trait Trees, but you should see the benefits of rethinking how the Trait Trees function.

I'd prefer to keep the level up as is, but give a "free" Tree pick (General/Other) when a path is chosen, then on each 4th level earned, get another Free Trait pick.  This would help alleviate what feels to be a god awful slow leveling process.  But I digress..