Hi, everyone. I'm not sure whether anyone noticed that ioun stones no longer provide prot. from critical anymore in BG2EE 2.5. That might be a huge problem for RB/Kensai/Monk since they can potentially be one-shot by enemies like golems.

I heard that the IA forged items doesn't have this issue, though you can only have Indigo Ioun Stone for warriors. I haven't tested it yet but this means you cannot have more than one warriors in this category if you don't want to be critical hit.

Edit: Tested it carefully again, my RB still get crit hit by my protagonist when wearing pale green ioun stone.

Which stones specifically are you talking about? I've fixed this in the past for some of them.

I believe the most important one is the one from Pai'Na (Pale Green Ioun Stone), which would be the main 'helm' of riskbreaker for a long time.

Cannot imagine how RB would become chunks when critical hit by gem golems lol

Edit: I might have hit the wrong character when I was testing it, will check it again after I get home.

I think this gem was fixed some time ago already. Right now it looks like it doesn't. Maybe the respective flag value was inverted? Dunno. Anyhow, this is questionable because why would it protect from critical hits?

This is actually a big nerf. My vote would be to restore critical resistance to ioun stones if they were in fact removed. Note the IA specific items druid crown and thief hood items provide critical hit resistance, which would be debatable from a realism perspective, so ioun stones having that property would be consistent.

Note that the Duerger helm quest item from Ch 5 and Mask of King Strohlm from Fiirkraag's dungeon can be worn by Riskbreakers and mages (and probably kensais) to provide critical hit resistance. Use of the former is probably a bug/exploit.

It's on my todo list.

I've fixed all the ioun stones locally. It doesn't look that the Mask of King Strohm protects from critical hits. Patrol helmet could be patched but it's a helmet after all. I don't think it's that big of a deal since we allow protection from critical hits for ioun stones anyway. There aren't any beneficial effects on that helmet to consider it an exploit. Also, it can't be worn by mages. True for kensais, though, but once again - ioun stones.

If we actually want to have a meaningful distinction, then ioun stones shouldn't protect from critical hits and kensais/rb/mages should not be able to wear full helmets except for the mask of the king. That'd be actually somewhat balancing. Kensai and RB are the hardest hitters in the game, having them vulnerable to critical hits is a good balance counterpoint. But needs to be tested, of course.

I agree that riskbreakers are overpowered and need adjusted but I would rather approach it by taking out some power from their kit. There is so much damage output with enemies, in particular golems or skeleton grandlords, that not having critical hit protection would make playing a RB extremely challenging since inevitably they become front line fighters, and randomly taking 100 damage hits on core isn't necessarily fun. Kensais seem to be played more as two handed weapon users which at least allows a smart player to utilize proper positioning where the kensai shouldn't be the primary targets.

Personally I think the innate improved haste is what pushes them over the top - I've yet to try a monk, but they also have this ability. Maybe its OK on monks since they have cannot otherwise be hasted.

Let's look at a party I posted here a couple years ago - vagrant PC/Neera/2x riskbreaker/Jaheira/ranger->cleric. That party contains 5 very good fighters, 3 skinned characters, 1.5 healers, and only 1 buff/debuff arcane caster. The only reason it is possible to get by with so little arcane casting is because starting at ~850k experience (RB level 11, sorceror level 12), the party has effectively 4 castings of improved haste, which allows for a ridiculous number of attacks per round and makes many of the Ch 3 fights very easy. In Chapter 6, the party has 6 innate improved haste castings, a character with permanent improved haste, and another half dozen or so castings of the spell.

If we compare the same party with Valygar and Mazzy, Ch3 fights are significantly more difficult because of having fewer improved haste castings. In fact, one may opt for a berserker/mage or Nalia instead of a primary fighter in order to allow for more improved haste uptime. This is still a very strong party, but there is significantly less damage output due to a) not having riskbreakers, and having a much weaker late-game fighter in its place.
To compare the hypothetical parties:
Vagrant/Neera/Riskbreaker/Riskbreaker/Jaheira/R->C
Vagrant/Neera/Valygar/Mazzy/Jaheira/R->C - 5 very good fighters but not enough buffing power
Vagrant/Neera/Valygar (or Mazzy)/B->M/Jaheira/R->C - 4 very good fighters, 1 OK fighter, 4 skinned characters, 1.5 healers. Still very strong but much weaker than the first party

The critical hit range and risk decrement ability are also extremely powerful so that could be another place where adjustments could be made. Fully healing, damaging(8d10), and pushing back all surrounding enemies is quite strong. Push back with a smaller damage (4d10) output and partial heal (100 hp?) would still be quite strong. Probably I wouldn't change the critical hit range at the moment.

I really like the Chain Breaker Stance ability - its quite powerful but short duration, and granting improved haste with that ability might make sense.

So to summarize, my proposed changes to the riskbreaker kit are the following:
- Change "Improved Haste" to haste granted at level 5 and 11
- Reduce Risk Decrement heal to 100 hp and damage to 4d10
- Add "Improved Haste" to "Chain Breaker Stance" at level 17 and 23

These are good suggestions. But simple haste is kinda pointless, no?

Simple haste is pointless late game but is quite useful early game, particularly if implemented without fatigue. It's good enough for Mazzy's kit

Fair enough. How long does the CBS last for?

I believe CBS lasts 5 rounds.

I believe CBS lasts 5 rounds.