| Precursor |
The swashbucklers Opportune Riposte, as well as some other feats such as the Bastion feat Disarming Block, allows you to attempt to disarm an opponent on their turn as a reaction (or free action after a reaction). I couldn't find any discussion on this from my (probably inadequate) searching, so I thought perhaps I could take it up here. There may be rules that handles this, but I have in that case not found them.
While the critical success, critical failure and failure effects are relatively straight forward, the Success states:
Success You weaken your opponent’s grasp on the item. Until the start of that creature’s turn, attempts to Disarm the opponent of that item gain a +2 circumstance bonus, and the target takes a –2 circumstance penalty to attacks with the item or other checks requiring a firm grasp on the item.
If an opponent triggers a disarm on their turn and it becomes a success, do they get an unfixable -2 to attacks with their weapon effectively a round if it happened on their first action? If disarm happens on your turn it don't impede the opponent on their turn and only helps subsequent disarm attempts and attacks outside their turn. The difference in effect is substantial. You could even build around using Disarming Block and Assurance Athletics (augment with Shield Warden) to cause a guaranteed -2 on attacks against enemies with low Reflex (given they trigger a Shield Block).
There is also the Swashbuckler feat Disarming Flair that change the end point to the person disarming's end of turn and introduces a way for the victim get rid of the debuff. RAW this is a downgrade compared to the default variant with shorter duration (unless your turn is right before theirs) and a way to get rid of the debuff (given you value penalty over action economy).So how do you solve this? The easiest is of course to ignore it and use RAW in the few cases it comes up (and as GM preferably shut down players actively exploiting it). Other variants may involve allowing the creature to do the Interact action described in Disarming Flair to get rid of the penalty. Or you could simply say that the creature in question is capable of instantly readjusting their grip during their turn (unless hit by Disarming Flair) effectively making Successes into Failures.
Personally I am slightly partial towards the last option, as I feel it close to the effect of the non-reactive/normal Disarm while also making sure the Disarming Flair feat is a straight upgrade (although it could make it too good when using disarm, and making Disarming Block when not having it situational at best. But then again Swashbucklers are the ones most likely to disarm outside their turn).
Any thoughts on the topic, or am I seeing a problem where there is non? I could also be missing a critical rule I overlooked.