Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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Just verifying. If you've only got 3 players and are using a pregen to make a 4th, the pregen still gets counted in challenge points? So in a 1-4 with players at 2, 3, & 4, you get a level 1 pregen and your cp are 3+4+6+2=15.
As opposed to the alternative of calculate cp as 13 and not have the pregen factor into cp because it's not a 'player'.
At least 15 is still low tier so the pregen's not entirely useless.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Just verifying. If you've only got 3 players and are using a pregen to make a 4th, the pregen still gets counted in challenge points? So in a 1-4 with players at 2, 3, & 4, you get a level 1 pregen and your cp are 3+4+6+2=15.
As opposed to the alternative of calculate cp as 13 and not have the pregen factor into cp because it's not a 'player'.
At least 15 is still low tier so the pregen's not entirely useless.
I don't see anything in the Guide that would prevent the pregen's challenge points from being counted, and not counting them wouldn't make sense.
To figure out what level pregen you should pick, I think in general you should aim to pick one that's closest in level to the majority of the players.
Venture-Captain, Missouri—Columbia
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The PFS1 Guide never says that you choose pregens after determining subtier. They're involved in tier calculations just like any other character.
I have always included pregens in calculating APL for 1e and I am including them for calculating Challenge Points in 2e. The pregens represent someone fighting on behalf of the party and are played as if they are a party member. Their abilities are just as important as those of a Player. They must absolutely be included in the calculations.
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In PFS1 you had to calculate APL first, otherwise you could have a player choose a 4th level Pregen overpower a Subtier 1-2 game, or a 1st level Pregen earn out-of-tier rewards for a Subtier 3-4 game.
In other words, APL determined the Level of the Pregen.
But since you need to calculate Challenge Points based on the levels present, and everyone gets rewards based on what level they play, it's reversed for PFS2.
This might not be stated in either guide, but practically speaking, it's the most correct way to do it.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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In PFS1 you had to calculate APL first, otherwise you could have a player choose a 4th level Pregen overpower a Subtier 1-2 game, or a 1st level Pregen earn out-of-tier rewards for a Subtier 3-4 game.
In other words, APL determined the Level of the Pregen.
But since you need to calculate Challenge Points based on the levels present, and everyone gets rewards based on what level they play, it's reversed for PFS2.
This might not be stated in either guide, but practically speaking, it's the most correct way to do it.
The PFS1 guide has one sentence in that direction:
Within each tier, PCs or pregenerated characters should
be used in the subtier in which they fall whenever possible,
but they may be adjusted up or down, based on the Average
Party Level at the table, as outlined below.
The same rule applies to both regular PCs and pregens, and boils down to "please all play in the same subtier, pleeeease".
It doesn't mean you don't use the pregen's level in determining subtier. But when picking a pregen, you usually should do the math "what if we picked the low level" and "what if we picked the high level" and figure out which one gets the most people in-subtier.
I say "usually" - I remember when I ran Beyond Azlant Ridge and allowed a player to pick the L7 Seelah for a low subtier game. I got some strange looks from my RVC who was also playing, but after the game he agreed it was the right call given that particular scenario.
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I think in PFS2 you should basically do the same exercise - run the math to see where you'd end up with either level of pregen, and pick the one which one would result in the most smooth subtier table.