Punishments (CGH)

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The punishments for misbehaving gladiators are as large as their rewards for good behavior are small. Though they gain only bedding, food, clothing, and training in exchange for their freedom and their lives, the smallest infraction brings down the full wrath of their owners. Though the punishments are not designed to goad the gladiator beyond the bounds of reason, they remind him or her who holds the whip.
Most punishments involve limiting food or water rations, forbidding the gladiator to participate in the upcoming games, and occasionally whippings. The master is unlikely to do anything that will permanently harm his gladiators, but on the other hand wants to make sure that his message has a lasting effect, to guarantee that his property will not misbehave in such a fashion again. The punishments continue until the gladiator demonstrates a truly contrite attitude.
The food and water limitations are usually enough to frighten a gladiator into subservience. Every gladiator knows that if he is not properly fed and rested the night before a big match, chances are his foe will have the advantage in the match. Most gladiators do not realize that the owner is thereby threatening his investment, and they quickly accede to his demands. Most nurse resentment at this treatment, but hide their true feelings in order to avoid further sanctions.
Although forbidding a gladiator participation in the games may not sound like much of a punishment, one must understand that the games are one of the few things that can break the monotony of the life in the stables. They can also provide one of the true tests of a gladiator's skills, tests that are unavailable in standard training. The gladiator often gives in to the master's demands of of sheer boredom.
Occasionally, these punishments fail to instill the gladiator with the necessary behavior. In cases like these, the owner resorts to a tried and true method of disciplining ordinary slaves: whipping. However, some gladiators quickly become inured to pain through their daily training, and whipping does little but irritate them. If he can stand it long enough, a gladiator's back can be whipped into bloody ribbons before he falls unconscious. This ensures that unless the owner wants to spend money on magical healing, the gladiator will be useless for several days while he recovers from the lashing.
Along the same lines as the lashing is the pillory. Although it is not as directly brutal, is can be just as punishing in its own fashion. Locked in a wooden stock in the midday sun without water is a devastating experience even to hardened gladiators.
Using the Dehydration rules on page 86 of the Rules Book, the DM can determine how much time the PC spends in the stocks, and thus how much Constitution the PC loses for his insubordination. The time spent in the pillory should be proportional to the magnitude of the PC's obstinance.
If none of these prove to work, a far more effective method is to punish other members of the stable with the above methods until the offending gladiator reforms his ways. If the gladiator cares for his companions, he will accept the changes his master demands. If the offender does not, his compatriots come to hate him, and will discipline him in a far more brutal fashion than his master, and may even allow him to die in the arena. Since the life of each gladiator rests in the hands of the others, this is a particularly effective method of punishment, especially against notably recalcitrant gladiators, such as muls and dwarves.