I am doing a story play through, which means I was hitting pretty hard and tanking most hits. That was until I clicked on "martials" and tried one of the stances. Forget which I tried first, but now I seem to be stuck between choosing between either offensive or defensive stances. The issue is that the defensive stance doesn't let me tank hits any better than "neutral" did, but I can barely hit anymore, and offensive stance doesn't let me hit any harder than "neutral" did, but I get hit much harder now. Is there a way to switch back to the "neutral" stance that you start with?

I am sure defensive/offensive stances make a ton of difference in a real play through, but they seem like more of a hindrance than anything else on a story play through.

Defensive stance I only gives elemental resistance to physical damage. Attacks that deal fire, dark, or other types of non-physical types of damage are not affected by this.

"Stance:defensive stance I" indicates defensive stance is currently active. "defensive stance I" signifies an inactive state. Aura is in a neutral fighting stance when none of the stance skills have a "stance:" in front of their name.

Defensive stance is great on mage builds since it doesn't reduce matk. Offensive stance can be useful when you have an ally like John or your slime to tank hits for Aura or when the extra basic attack lets you defeat enemies before they can land a hit on Aura.

As for the situation while in combat?

It seems to work fine.