Zen and the art of Thugging

[Zargen]

IMO, the best thugs you can make are ones capable of dieing large amounts of life drain per turn. Think my favorite thug was a Dusk Elder that I had use wish for 'power' to beef him up a bit. And then gave a few items that added additional aoe life-draining attacks along with regenerating items and magic resistance. Every turn he drained a sizeable chunk of the enemy's units, regained life, and repeated until they ran. Worked every-single-time.