Hi.
I have problem with Thug Tactics. It scales terribly with the number of PCs. That was true somewhat for flanking but at least you could try to flank with a single ally.
What other methods can you think of that do not rely on a battle map?
Perhaps instead, as an action, you could intimidate your opponent and if you succeed you gain advantage on your next attack. (...)
You could have it require another creature use an action to set up the sneak attack.
Those are already covered by the rules, and do not require a special class feature for the Thug. The first is a contest, the second Aid Another.
What about this one:
Thug's Oportunism
When you attack an opponent in melee who has taken damage since the end of your last turn, you can apply your sneak attack damage. (Even if you do not have advantage.)
- It models ganging up. (Although you might do it with an opportunity attack.)
- It doesn't always work. (Unless your friends have auto-hit)
- It doesn't offer real advantage, which at some point designers said should require an action.
Then, they could give Thief-rogues advantage against a target who attacked someone else (and not the rogue) on their last turn. That sort of models backstabbing (attacking when the enemy's attention is diverted) without actually having to introduce facing or more positional stuff into the game.
This would be cool if it didn't mechanically reinforce the need for the monster to attack the rogue every turn. All of the sudden rogues will be taking attacks from everyone like they were a fighter.