Hi,
There is something I want to make sure that I'm reading right. The Swashbuckler feat, Antagonize, appears to be always on. There is no mention of any switch that allows a character to selectively choose whether they antagonize a foe. I realize that it probably sounds like I'm looking for hairs to split but our group tends to split hairs and it helps to be prepared. The language, which I think could be slightly clearer, reads
"When you successfully Demoralize a creature, its frightened condition can't decrease to less than 1 at the end of its turn until it either uses a hostile action against you or can no longer observe or sense you for at least 1 round."
I personally would replace the "When" with "Whenever" which would make it unambiguous but that's just me.
From a flavor standpoint, I view it as instead of your character just being an annoying braggart swashbuckler this feat changes your character to be a really annoying braggart swashbuckler.
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To me "when" vs "whenever" doesn't make a difference.
The process plays out like this:
Did you successfully demoralize the enemy? No, then nothing happens.
Yes, good now they can't decrease their frightened condition unless:
1) They use a hostile action against you or
2) Can't observe/sense you for 1 whole round
As for the question of "it is always on" yes in the sense that it doesn't take an action to activate and affects any enemy that meets the condition of you having successfully demoralized.
No, it's not "always on" in the sense that they must first be demoralized by you.
Antagonize is a permanent modification of a different action - Demoralize. A similar feat is Titan Wrestler which modifies Grapple, Trip, and Shove (and Disarm, but no one uses that action in the first place).
Other feats are optional modifications of a different action, such as Goading Feint. When you use Feint, you can choose to either do a normal Feint, or a Goading Feint. Same with Intimidating Glare - you can either do a normal Demoralize where the target needs to hear and understand you, or a glare Demoralize where the target needs to see you.
Yet other feats are new actions that happen to look similar to an existing action, such as Scare to Death. It looks a bit like Demoralize, but it isn't. Same with Battle Medicine being a new action rather than a modification of Treat Wounds.