Getting your Steps in, 9th level Liturgist Animist theory crafting for maximum sustains.

In this thread, we will list all the great things you can do with liturgist's 9th level ability Dancing Invocation and the levels you can get them at.

Dancing Invocation reads:

Dancing Invocation (9th): The movement of your body grants power to your magic. When you Leap, Step, or Tumble Through, you also Sustain an apparition spell or vessel spell.

You can have a maximum of four attuned apparitions, meaning a possibility of 4 castable/sustainable focus spells (with Circle of Spirits). The focus spells can only have one instance running at any given time, and you'll need a way to regen focus points to cast all of them, obviously. Apparition spells are only spells your apparition grants.

Notable Apparition Spells

This is a list of apparition spells that can be sustained (not the focus spells) and do something useful in combat. Particularly good spells have exclamation marks.

Crafter in the Vault

  • None

Custodian of Groves and Gardens

  • Safe Passage (3rd)

  • Field of Life (6th)

  • Lifewood Cage (7th)

Echo of Lost Moments

  • Figment (Cantrip)

  • Quandary (8th)

Imposter in Hidden Places

  • Telekinetic Hand (Cantrip) (can be good if you use Spell Trickster archetype to modify it for combat use)

  • Mislead (6th)

Lurker in the Devouring Dark

  • Aqueous Orb (3rd) ! (multiple sustains to drag an enemy)

  • Frost Pillar (6th)

  • Hungry Depths (7th) (can sustain to max size quickly)

  • Implosion (9th)

Monarch of the Fey Courts

  • Unfathomable Song (9th) Incap

Reveler in Lost Glee

  • Laughing Fit (2nd) ! (good all around spell, can hypothetically be combined with aqueous orb to suffocate)

  • Hypnotize (3rd)

  • Vibrant Pattern (6th)

  • Quandary (8th)

Stalker in Darkened Buroughs

  • Wrathful Storm (9th)

Steward of Stone and Fire

  • None

Vanguard of Roaring Waters

  • Dancing Fountain (7th)

  • Whirlpool (8th)

  • Wrathful Storm (9th)

Witness to Ancient Battles

  • Invoke Spirits (5th) ! (good low level aoe damage)

Notable Synergistic Feats

  • Skirmish Strike (ranger/rogue/drow shootist archetype, lvl 12/12/10). Step and strike. 1 action.

  • Peafowl Stance. (monk archetype feat 8). Step and Strike. 1 action.

  • Elf Step, Wing Step (Strix). 9th level Ancestry feats, lets you Step twice for 1 action.

  • Rolling Landing (Skill feat 2), find a way to fall consistently (like leaping) and get a step on reaction

  • Goblin Scuttle (Goblin feat 1), get your familiar to move next to you, step on reaction

  • Maneuvering Spell (Sixth Pillar feat 12), Step or Leap when casting a 2 action spell

  • Dashing Pounce (Claw Dancer, feat 4), Leap and make two strikes, 2 actions

  • Wheeling Grab (Claw dancer, feat 6), Tumble Through and grapple, 1 action

  • Quick Spring (Acrobat archetype, skill feat 13), Tumble Through, free action stride, 1 action

  • Step Lively (Halfling feat 5), reaction, step if large enemy ends near you

  • Tumbling Theft, (skill feat 7) reaction to steal upon tumbling through

Notable Items

  • Emerald Grasshopper + Bands of Force (get it on your armor and bands of force for 2 activations, Talisman Cords for potentially more), free action leap means free action sustain

  • Potion of Leaping, Spry Sinews, Boots of Bounding, Firefoot Popcorn (makes your leaps a bit nicer)

  • Little Love (Dagger), gets a free action leap on crit

  • Ghost Dust (item 16), invisibility + step on free action

This list is far from complete, but these are the best items I know of.

Synergistic Spells

  • Time Jump (3rd, only really able to get with archetype)

  • Anything with quickened (Haste, Loose Time's Arrow, etc)

Important Synergistic Animist Feats

  • Channelers Stance (Feat 1)

  • Apparition's Quickening (you get 3 quickenings... no brainer)

  • Carindal Guardians (you can hit an enemy so many times in 2 turns)

  • Cycle of Souls and Spirit's Sacrifice are both amazing 18th level abilities, but Cycle of Souls gives us a free step each turn.

Apparition Synergies

  • Devouring Dark Form lets you strike on sustain, which means once per round you can leap, sustain, strike as a free action combo via Emerald Grasshopper. Talisman dabbler may be a shoe in for a build like this.

Tips and Tricks

  • Aqueous Orb is extremely good if you can sustain on a turn that isn't yours (e.g. stepping on a reaction, readying an action to sustain). You can move an enemy away from you with it when they try to strike. You can hypothetically use Laughing Fit (DM fiat) to make an enemy suffocate in it.

  • Channeler's Stance (feat 1, animist) is animist's bread and butter and is not optional. It gives a status bonus to damage to any energy damage spell from apparitions, including cantrips and focus spells. This covers almost all the damage spells here in the above list, I believe (void is an energy damage). For max spell damage at level 1, you would want channeler's stance, Lurker in the Devouring Dark (for Caustic Blast) and Steward of Stone and Fire (for their focus). It has no limitations on duration spells either, which means you can hypothetically blast with more damage than a Psychic over the course of a battle, especially later in the game. Unfortunately, I don't think this status bonus applies to persistent damage, it would probably be way too good.

  • You can get a lot of free sustains off with proper planning. You can sustain at least 6 spells regularly with Elf Step alone. Emerald Grasshoppers give you free action sustains that a Witch will envy. Many abilities like Dashing Pounce will greatly enhance gish capabilities of the class post 9th.

  • There are obvious mobility and kiting benefits from all the stepping and leaping you're going to be doing.

  • The earliest damage & sustained apparition spell slot is with Ancient Battles.

  • By 10th level, in a big boss fight, you can get 2 quickened spells off by dispersing apparitions. I'm not sure how worth it this is but it means you can turn out a lot of damage. By 15th you can do it 3 times (once per round) in a boss fight. You should be able to get some decent damage spit out and sustained by turn 2 easily.

  • While some apparitions don't have sustainable spells, that doesn't mean they're useless. Steward of Stone and Fire's focus spell more than makes up for its lack of sustainable spells, and they have a ton of blasting spells, including Fireball.