>>96350355
PCs are going to be very powerful no matter what. As a general rule, Pawns are interactive scenery and no major threat, retainers are standard enemies, and villains are strong enemies but not true bosses unless they fight unfair or have more stats to build out (or both - they're villains!).
Pawns should be thought of largely as ablative armor for the real enemies, as their main utility is to hoover up actions. You can make them a more serious concern by giving them armor, giving them guns, and not clumping them up too much. Have them use their ability to increase accuracy by combining actions. If you want to houserule, borrow from Barbarians of Lemuria and give them up to 3 Wounds, but please remember that to properly represent the genre, these guys are meant to be no real threat.
To prevent your players from making monobuilds, make sure to make things like languages and social skill are actually important in your game. Your players should soon realize even non-dedicated fight autists can be combat effective and even great. Tome of Intriguing Options has optional rules to make combat more perilous, and the 2d10 resolution mechanic in core is slightly more perilous by default. That recently released island splat has some nasty animals and monsters to use.
