Improved Reaction deactivates Combat Styles

[zhazz]

As the title says.

Playing a Duelist currently, I almost never use the Improved Reaction feature because it deactivates any Combat Style currently active. Which in turn incurs a 6 second (full round) cooldown to activate the Combat Style again. Thus it is simply not worth it to activate Improved Reaction, since losing the bonuses from Combat Style outweigh the benefits granted by Improved Reaction for the round they are deactivated.

Northlander Hewing isn't as affected by this, since it only adds damage per hit. It actually provides a safety net by removing the -2 AC penalty, granting a difference of +3 AC for the round where only damage per hit is lost.

Sembian Fencing is more impacted, however, due to losing upwards of 4 Dexterity (2 AB and 2 AC) including upwards of 8 AB for a total loss of 9 AB and 1 AC for an entire round (after counting the bonuses from Improved Reaction)

Athkatlan Triparite is probably the most impacted, since the loss of 4 AC is often the difference between getting only getting hit on a nat-20, not being crit, or receiving a crit. Even with the bonus to AC from Improved Reaction it's still a loss of 3 AC, which is still usually enough to end up in the danger zone.


At best it can be used as a pre-fight mini-buff, but when it runs out there's no point in reactivating it due to the above issue.