I wasn't aware YAAD was a sore balancing point for the community, so that's good to make a note of. As far as damage weakness goes, I suppose a smart group will get tons of use out of it if they focus fire for a round, so adding save ends or ends after the retainer's next turn would work (assuming I keep it, I'll take another look at that as well.)
Thanks for the reply and all the feedback! It's been very helpful.