Bizarrely high HP for it's threat level and type. Makes orcs, gnolls, lizardfolk, apes and black bears look weak by comparison. Boy could challenge a dire wolf or giant spider. 
I'll definitely be tweaking that. Either use a club not a mace, or a single quarterstaff attack, or drop it's health some.

CR 1/2 seems a bit low with his HP. I’ll definitely be using this for a party I am running though 

has to be 5th level to gain the 2 attacks i guess as a human

Two things:

• High HP, but very low AC. With the usual Tier 1 +5 modifier to hit that's ~75% to hit this fella. Not hard.
• It is a humanoid, with high self preservation. Contrary to (my picture of) an orc or beast, when reduced to ~12 HP or less, a Thug will probably retreat or surrender.

Kinda new to 5th ed, but wouldn't 5 HD make him CR 1?

Definitely pretty strong for CR 1/2. My party of four 1st level characters just started Road to Baldur's Gate and the first encounter is with two thugs. With two attacks and 30+ hp each (and the tiefling in the encounter has a smite), they had the same amount of attacks per round as our party, but much more staying power than a 1st level character. We survived, but two players went unconscious. Its possible we were a little cavalier, expecting something along the lines of bandits or goblins that you usually see in the first encounter of a campaign. It was unexpected, but fun. I'm not saying it's unfair, but I definitely wouldn't recommend this for inexperienced players at level 1.

As for the first post saying this makes things like Orcs and Gnolls weak by comparison, this is the perfect kind of template to use for those monsters maybe as a leader or second-in-command type, just slap some racial traits on them.

but why does he have a dragon (and a strange metal hat)?

The dragon is a winged snake, used by the Zhentarim as messengers in the Forgotten realms. The hat is a type of helmet called a skull cap. 

hey, thanks! i actually didn’t expect a sensible response (or any at all) so i appreciate it. :)

@LiveFromKevin You bet your buns this is a great template for such creatures. Re-skinning these types of thing is so much more fun that just using the base versions. The only reason I have to complain is for new DMs who aren't very confident and prefer to use these stat-blocks as they are. I honesty can't say if it discourages players from reskinning because it's stepping outside of the basic rules, or encourages players to reskin because it's almost necessary considering how much variety, flavor, and logic it adds to groups of humanoids.

Thug is an interesting stat-block.  Definitely on the upper-most end of CR 1/2.

I know the encounter building guide says you can throw two of these guys against a first level party; those guidelines are mistaken.

Personally, I regard them as a CR ,1 or even CR 2 creature, with their threat reduced through weaker equipment.

This thing looks weird.

@Dr Frederick:

Depends how big your first level party is. In my experience, 5 or 6 1st-level characters (what XGE implies would be a balanced encounter), using appropriate tactics, would go through 2 of these guys like butter, especially if the encounter starts at a distance of more than 30 feet. 

Offensively, these guys are at the lower end of CR 2, but only if there are a lot of them so that their pack tactics can come into play. Defensively, they're at the upper end of CR 0 due to poor armor class. I don't think you get your challenge 1/2 worth of threat out of these guys unless they are part of a group that includes at least as many enemies as there are PCs.

Strictly by formula, I can bring them up to a CR 1 (even alone) if you increase all their stats by 1 (because human), improve their armor to chain shirts, and change the melee weapon to a warhammer or longsword (something d8/d10)

Personally using them as a leader of a small mugging group, one thug two bandits. for four 1st level. But I consider it fair as the bardarian at the front does have 20 AC. We roll d20 for the stats.

Quote from Night_Wolf2512 >>

Personally using them as a leader of a small mugging group, one thug two bandits. for four 1st level. But I consider it fair as the bardarian at the front does have 20 AC. We roll d20 for the stats.

20s In CON and DEX?

Lucky fella.

fun with bandits

Quote from Night_Wolf2512 >>

Personally using them as a leader of a small mugging group, one thug two bandits. for four 1st level. But I consider it fair as the bardarian at the front does have 20 AC. We roll d20 for the stats.

 Why a d20 and not the standard 4d6 drop lowest? A d20 has a stupidly large standard deviation (swingy-ness), and I personally would always take point buy over something like that. Care to enlighten me?

Quote from ShaydyCharacter >>

Bizarrely high HP for it's threat level and type. Makes orcs, gnolls, lizardfolk, apes and black bears look weak by comparison. Boy could challenge a dire wolf or giant spider. 
I'll definitely be tweaking that.

 

 This. My level 1 party encountered 3 of these guys and I am surprised it wasn't a TPK.

People only looking at the HP and not considering its abysmall saves, low AC and pretty weak damge.

His AC is very very low is the thing. 

An AC that low means that his HP would be widdled down quite fast