Tough

A tough on the party's side is a hired guard, a tavern bouncer the party brought along, a city watch loaner, or a smuggling crew the party paid to muscle a job. The tough has Int 10 and Wisdom 10 and speaks Common, so they can take orders and report back. They will not invent a plan. They will execute the one the party gives them and complain if it is bad.

The Pack Tactics trait works for the party as well as against it. A single hired tough standing next to a PC fighter means the fighter rolls every attack at Advantage on the same target. Two hired toughs flanking the boss the party is trying to kill is a meaningful damage boost, even if the toughs themselves miss often. The mace damage is forgettable but the threat zone matters.

Use the Heavy Crossbow for ambushes. A pair of toughs hidden in cover with crossbows can open an outdoor encounter with two bolts before initiative is rolled, which can soften a target that the party's archer then finishes in round one. The 100-foot range means the toughs do not need to commit to the melee at all if the party would rather they hang back and reload.

The tough refuses anything that looks suicidal. AC 12 and 32 HP is not a stat line that survives a CR 5 monster, and the tough knows it. They will not enter a dragon's lair. They will not stand in a fireball lane. They will hold a doorway, escort a wagon, watch a flank, and run for the inn the moment the fight turns. Pay them in advance.

A tough is the muscle, not the mind. CR 1/2, AC 12, 32 HP, mace, heavy crossbow, Pack Tactics. The stat block is built around the assumption that you are running at least three of these, because Pack Tactics only matters when allies are within 5 feet of the target. A single tough is a thug with a club. Three toughs around a fighter is the fighter rolling defenses against +4 attacks at Advantage, which lands far more often than +4 suggests.

Open at range. Heavy Crossbow is +3 to hit, range 100/400 ft., 6 average damage. The opening round of an outdoor ambush has every tough firing one bolt and then closing to mace range. Indoors, the toughs already have the doorway and the volley lands as the party comes through. Don't let toughs and party meet at melee range without the toughs getting a free shot first. That shot is most of their value.

Once in melee, the play is to flank. Mace at +4 for 5 average damage is unimpressive, but two toughs adjacent to a single PC means both attacks roll at Advantage. Three around a target is a dead target on the second round, even at this CR. The party's answer is to break the cluster. A wizard with a thunderwave or a fighter with a shove plus an attack scatters the formation and turns one mob into three weak attackers.

Toughs flee at half HP if the leader has dropped or the pay is bad. These are mercenaries with Charisma 11 and no special loyalty. If the encounter has a named NPC paying their wages, the toughs hold until that NPC is gone. If the named NPC was the first thing the party killed, the toughs are running by round three.

Have one of them take a bolt for a buddy. Even mercenaries had a bunkmate. Make the party feel that.