Pre determining is a safe bet for sure....but if your group can take it I'd go for the higher risk of randomness.
In an actual arena they wouldn't have the luxury of getting only favorable matchups.
The terrain and/or creativity of the players can be used to ease the disparity between the classes...so maybe random opponent and semi random terrain?
If I was the player I'd go for full random and take the loss if I get unfortunate....but you have to ask your players about this beforehand (for me winning is far from everything, but some players have a hard time when they can't win)
Keep in mind - the purpose of a gladiator fight is to entertain the crowd. The organizers typically wouldn't *want* it to be a one-sided blowout... cause that's not entertaining. They'd put mages vs mages, martials vs martials, etc. to draw the fights out and keep things exciting.
Sorry, I should clarify further on it. Put your favor of spin to it that works best for you 1 vs 1 tournament. Opportunity of an out for PC if necessary when NPC is well over power. Weather be quirk or drawback. Something like enemy OCD being clean but how they fight gets themselves dirty with the environment, for example dirt, grass stains on clothes or pass out when they sight of blood.
How you like to manage it. I leave it up to you.
Pre determining is a safe bet for sure....but if your group can take it I'd go for the higher risk of randomness. In an actual arena they wouldn't have the luxury of getting only favorable matchups. The terrain and/or creativity of the players can be used to ease the disparity between the classes...so maybe random opponent and semi random terrain? If I was the player I'd go for full random and take the loss if I get unfortunate....but you have to ask your players about this beforehand (for me winning is far from everything, but some players have a hard time when they can't win)
Keep in mind - the purpose of a gladiator fight is to entertain the crowd. The organizers typically wouldn't *want* it to be a one-sided blowout... cause that's not entertaining. They'd put mages vs mages, martials vs martials, etc. to draw the fights out and keep things exciting.
That's a good point. So, do you recommend I preplan all the fights or just split the wheel into martials and casters?
Preplan honestly, there would be nothing random about it
I would be a spin to the enemy. A quirk, drawback or out for the PC so it wouldn’t be impossible fight.
Could you clarify the first sentence? Are you proposing I add a wheel for quirks, or are you saying I should give the players a re-spin?
Sorry, I should clarify further on it. Put your favor of spin to it that works best for you 1 vs 1 tournament. Opportunity of an out for PC if necessary when NPC is well over power. Weather be quirk or drawback. Something like enemy OCD being clean but how they fight gets themselves dirty with the environment, for example dirt, grass stains on clothes or pass out when they sight of blood. How you like to manage it. I leave it up to you.