P1 Gran Prix

A Pathfinder2e PvE Event

What is it?

P1 Grand Prix is a PvE tournament wherein a party of 4 will choose their enemies to try to eliminate them. As a Gran Prix, each individual event earns points that accumulate to a Championship at the end of the season. March Madness will kick off the first season of P1 Gran Prix. The top teams will be the team that defeats the most enemies in the least amount of time with the most survivors. Each team will be able to study the enemies beforehand to determine the best way they can win. Every map, every monster will be the same for everyone. 

There will be 4 tiers of play:
Level 5
Level 10
Level 15
Level 20

Anyone who is found cheating will disqualify their entire team and be banned from future P1 events.

Cheating is using actions or doing anything outside of the rules of Pathfinder to give yourself an advantage. This includes things like lying about what your character can actually do, i.e. your character’s speed, your character’s attributes, feats or other abilities. Collaborating with the GM beforehand to help your team win, or anything that can be construed as unfair will be considered cheating.

Party Rules

Each party will have 4 Party Members and requires at minimum 2 party members to control 2 PCs. Parties cannot have 2 of the same classes. I.e. you cannot have 2 fighters or 2 rogues.

Only Common and Uncommon ancestries, backgrounds and classes will be available, however uncommon feats will not be legal to use in this Grand Prix. Legacy content is available assuming they follow the same rules as Common/Uncommon ancestries/backgrounds/classes but not uncommon feats. 

Anything with the rare tag is not available for use. Feats/Abilities/Spells/Items/Etc from any Adventure Path will not be allowed. Free Archetype will not be a variant rule used.

You can outfit your party with the allotted treasure from the treasure table here with the modification of being buying/receiving items to your character's level instead of PL-1: Treasure for new Characters.

Each team can only participate in one category for this event and once you have created the thread in the team forum and chosen the tier you've chosen to play at, you cannot change the tier you have chosen. However you may switch to different tiers of play in another event based on how you feel you'll best perform.

Should someone not be able to play, you may choose to ask someone to step in on their behalf who is not in a party in the same tier of play as yours as long as both teams and GMs agree to it.

GM Rules

As part of the tournament each team must have 1 person GM at least 1 other combat for another team. All rolls will be rolled in public even if the rules say to roll them privately for transparency. You do not have to run a game for someone in your bracket, you can run a game for anyone else.

GMs are encouraged to push the Party as hard as they can with the monsters they have at their disposal. There is no need to worry about pulling punches. Your goal is a Total Party Wipe. However, fudging numbers or cheating will result in your entire team being disqualified. 

Please try to schedule your encounters with the team as soon as you can after the start date. When you have completed the encounter, please post the results in the team's thread: The Option they chose, How many enemies eliminated and How many rounds it took for them to eliminate or be eliminated so we can tally the scores.

The GM can host the game in whatever format is most convenient for them either through Foundry, Roll20 or even in person if they so wish.

Scoring Rules

Scoring is based on the difficulty of the monster and how many rounds it takes for you to kill the monsters or how long you survived. You only get points for the enemies you eliminated and you only get points for how many members survived at the beginning of the round where combat ends. For example if you eliminated 3xPL+0  and took 3 rounds to kill them and you TPK on the 4th round. Your score would be 12pts as 3xPL+0 = 6pts and you survived to the 3rd round. You would get additional points based on how many survivors made it to the beginning of the 3rd round:

22 if all 4 of you made it to the beginning of the 3rd round
20 if 3 of you made it to the beginning of the 3rd round
18 if 2 of you made it to the beginning of the 3rd round
16 if only 1 made it to the beginning of the 3rd round

There is only a maximum of 40pts that can be achieved in this event. There will be a champion team for each Grand Prix Class. If there is a tie for the #1 spot, the winner will be determined by each team picking a hero to represent the team and making a single strike or spell or feat with no preparation or prebuff bonuses to the character. The other party members may be positioned in any configuration around the monster but cannot otherwise interact with the monster unless the hero has a feat that allows other party members to act with a reaction or can benefit from the positional configuration in some way. Whichever team does the most damage in totality to all the creatures on the board will determine the winner. 


Option 1: 5x PL+0 enemies
Option 2: 2x PL+1 enemies 1xPL+0
Option 3: 1x PL+2 Enemy 1xPL+1 Enemy
Option 4: 1x PL+3 1xPL+2
Option 5: 1x PL+4 1xPL+1
Option 6: 1x PL+5

PL+5: 20pts
PL+4: 10pts
PL+3: 8pts
PL+2: 6pts
PL+1: 4pts
PL+0: 2pts


1 rounds: 10pts
2 rounds: 8pts
3 rounds: 6pts
4 rounds: 4pts
5 rounds: 2pts
6+ rounds: 1pt

4 survivors: 10pts
3 survivors: 8pts
2 survivors: 6pts
1 survivor: 4pts

Encounter Rules

Each option will have specific enemies for each tier of play and will be shown to players 3 days before the Gran Prix begins and players will be able to choose which option they want and let the GM know ahead of time.

To determine starting positions of players and monsters, the GM will first place each monster on the map and show the players where they are located. The GM may place monsters anywhere on the map. Monsters cannot start combat hidden unless otherwise specified and must start on the ground. Then, Players will place their characters anywhere within 10ft from the edge of the map. Initiative will then be rolled.

You can spend 3 actions to pre buff yourself or others before initiative begins and assume that you will be able to stride to each other without spending an action before initiative is rolled. It is assumed that you will start with your weapon/wand/staff/bomb or any other device that you use for combat, drawn. Initiative will be rolled based on the exploration action taken prior to combat start and does not count against your 3 actions taken. For example, an alchemist may create any number of mutagens however, with 3 actions they can only retrieve the mutagens and give 2 of them out with the other 2 actions as they will not be starting the combat with their mutagens in their hand as it is not a weapon. The receivers will spend 1 action to consume the mutagen giving them 2 actions left to spend. Alternatively players may spend 1 action to retrieve the mutagen from the alchemist’s backpack and then consume it using 2 actions leaving the alchemist 3 actions to do something else. In the event of a tie, it is assumed all of your resources are restored for the tiebreaker.

Please have your actions and rules adjudicated by the GM beforehand on how your abilities or feats may be interpreted. Bring in any moderators to settle disagreements. The server at large is a vast store of information that has intricate knowledge on very niche rules and actions. Any disagreements will be settled by a moderator or third parties that are given roles as judges for rules.

FAQ

1. When does the event begin?
A: The event begins on March 15, but this does not mean everything has to complete on March 15. You may spend the next few weeks coordinating schedules with everyone to play.

2. Is Free Archetype allowed?
A: No.

3. When do I have to submit my team?
A: Teams have to be submitted by 11:59PM PST on March 15, 2026 with your thread title reflecting your team and tier you are competing at. Submit your character sheets into your team's thread and your title reflecting your tier by then.

4. When does the map/monsters get listed?
A: They will be dropped on March 12, 2026.

5. What is considered survived?
A: A character is considered surviving if they are conscious with at least 1hp when the last enemy has been dropped to 0hp.

6. How is Survivor metered?
A: 2 different ways. If there is a TPK, survivors are metered based on the amount of PCs who are conscious with at least 1hp at the beginning of the round of the TPK. If the enemy team is fully eliminated, survivors are metered by how many PCs are conscious with at least 1hp at the time of the last enemy being eliminated. Some enemies may have post-elimination effects that do damage after they die, if they have this ability, survivors will be counted after this effect happens.

7. Are firearms illegal?
A: All firearms from this list here will be considered available for use.

8. Will there be Hero Points?
A: All players will have 1 hero point at the beginning of the encounter.

9. How do I determine my equipment?
A: You may use either the lumpsum or the suggested loot table from the new character table to be able to buy/receive up to your character's level in equipment. All equipment must have the common tag.

10. What is a pre-combat buff?
A: As stated above, you'll have 3 actions to spend to pre-buff your team. This includes getting into a stance, summoning a creature, casting spells the target an ally player or giving consumables to players to give boost abilities. Pre-buffing doesn't include changing the environment or casting a 2 round attack spell or anything of similar nature.