Pencil and Brush tool keep reverting to basic settings, "New Art Has Basic Appearance" does nothing.

I have researched this issue and it seems like it has gone unresolved for a long time. When I make a new stroke with the pencil tool, instead of maintainging the stroke width and profile, it resets to the baic line with 1pt width.
 Worst part is it seems to happen randomly, or with a very specific and non-sensical trigger. I can work for a few minutes or secinds without the change, but suddenly it resets! This completely breaks my workflow and makes me wanna quit everytime.