Sentient Gems, Ranked Best to Worst:

[Aelonwy]

BUT. From a role-play perspective, the extremely rare ones like Dragon and Lizardfolk do have some interesting aspects; namely that you can't have more than 1 per account, so it really does "feel" unique. Like how the sentient gems should feel. Unfortunately they are both so terribly auto-tuned I doubt many people actually use them.

Hmm someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they add Dragon to the Anniversary Quest? So the only 1/per account Sentient Jewel is one PURCHASED by top-tier Saltmarsh bundle customers. I really do feel this was a misstep because again IMHO sentient jewel personalities are a COSMETIC choice by the player.

[mbartol]

I’m going to guess that the 1/account on the Lizardfolk gem from Saltmarsh is to prevent people from pulling an infinite number of 5-sentient xp bites to feed to another sentient weapon. Of course this could have been easily prevented by allowing only 1/life like the free Ravenloft ones.

[Mindos]

Also I would like a Malicia-like voice, the Sultry?, for an Enchanter/Bard

[Eantarus]

Hmm someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they add Dragon to the Anniversary Quest? So the only 1/per account Sentient Jewel is one PURCHASED by top-tier Saltmarsh bundle customers. I really do feel this was a misstep because again IMHO sentient jewel personalities are a COSMETIC choice by the player.

Did they? I thought you could only get it from the even give-away.

I agree the gems are a completely cosmetic choice and that is definitely best from a gameplay perspective. There are some good options available even to F2P players.

[PurpleSerpent]

This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but personally, the Dragon gem is one of my favourites. Even if the autotune does sometimes fail to kick in at all, leaving behind a line spoken in a perfectly normal voice. (Which, personally, I find hilarious, because it reminds me of every time one of my Dungeon Masters tried to give a monster an ill-advised accent and had to just give up halfway and skip to rolling initiative.)

[macubrae]

I like the deep over-sampled voices like the Dragon and Blackrazor. The optimistic cheerleader voice makes me think of the singing telegram girl from the movie Clue.

[Bjond]

alto female voice perhaps called Soothing, that speaks of healing [..] male, also pleasant voice perhaps a bit rough that speaks of nature [..] Malicia-like voice, the Sultry?

LOL, Malicia reminds me of someone I asked a friend to introduce me to based on her voice. His response, "OMG, no!" Me, "Why not, doesn't match her voice?" Him, "Oh, she's gorgeous." Me, "???" Him, "Unbelievably vain & nasty. You really don't want to know."

Sentient Gem voiced by Sir Molasses Gumdrop (the Gingerbread Golem).

Fey has a ton of very cool voice acting. Imagine a gem based on the Singing Sword, for instance.

(sorry, couldn't resist .. and now you've got a Sir Arden ear-worm don't you? ;> )

Geena Davis pulled it off

Ya, she was fantastic -- depends on context and in that series ANY character works as long as it's campy enough. Sometimes I really like Wave (like in Fey, which is half campy musical) and others it's very jarring.

[Arkat]

Oh and that reminds me, a really cool reward for Snowpeaks or even for massive amounts of Festivult coins could be a Sentient Gem voiced by Sir Molasses Gumdrop (the Gingerbread Golem).

Yes!

Gingerbread Golem sentience FTW!!



A Malicia sentience would also be cool, I suppose.

[Malveaux]

999,987. Timid. What idiot did they get to voice this garbage? No matter what they paid him, it was too much!

I really enjoy this gem. One of my top gems. I find this type of talk very barbaric.

[Eantarus]

This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but personally, the Dragon gem is one of my favourites. Even if the autotune does sometimes fail to kick in at all, leaving behind a line spoken in a perfectly normal voice. (Which, personally, I find hilarious, because it reminds me of every time one of my Dungeon Masters tried to give a monster an ill-advised accent and had to just give up halfway and skip to rolling initiative.)

I think its a perfectly valid opinion. I find it especially funny that the gem is being auto-tuned somehow in the game engine; I had assumed it was done in the recording. I'm going to have to play with that gem some.

[voxson5]

Instead of botb VA's like on timid, I would love to see respect to DDO's history by introducing a gem done with the old DM's.

+1 to a Malicia gem.

Would also love Amskar & Keldan Shadeskein gems, my favorite VA's in the game tbh - Can you imagine crowd controlling a group of mobs "Stupid predictable monsters!" or as an ice sorcerer casting otilukes "do you like my flying glacier!"

*edit - maybe that's rare drop we could get from arc / xpac endgame quests? A gem of the BBEG?

[Eantarus]

Instead of botb VA's like on timid, I would love to see respect to DDO's history by introducing a gem done with the old DM's.

+1 to a Malicia gem.

Would also love Amskar & Keldan Shadeskein gems, my favorite VA's in the game tbh - Can you imagine crowd controlling a group of mobs "Stupid predictable monsters!" or as an ice sorcerer casting otilukes "do you like my flying glacier!"

*edit - maybe that's rare drop we could get from arc / xpac endgame quests? A gem of the BBEG?

I just want more gems that were actually voice-acted, period. The garbage-talker they got to record The Timid lines clearly barely knows how to speak, let alone voice-act. The Dragon and Lizardfolk, while not without their charms, are reliant on digital manipulation, not on the talent of the person recording the lines.

So I'd like to see more actual voice acting on the gems.

[Vellrad]

I really enjoy this gem. One of my top gems. I find this type of talk very barbaric.

The guy who voiced timid should get a better microphone. Quality is really low. Other than that its OK.

[Malveaux]

The guy who voiced timid should get a better microphone. Quality is really low. Other than that its OK.

The sound engineer was probably a intern. SSG should of budgeted for some studio time so Cordovan could of really shined with his voiced gem. I might be a little biased though. A friend told I should play this game and send me links to Cordovan's weekly cast. That's what really got me to play.

[Lotoc]

I'd love for there to be a sentient gem that has a single voice line
The Hatchery

[Cordovan]

The guy who voiced timid should get a better microphone. Quality is really low. Other than that its OK.

The history of this gem gets lost over time, but the recording was actually done as a sort of in-development "scratch track", just something to use while the system was being developed. It ended up getting released just due to the general interest in having more sentient gems out there, and I'm honored it was deemed worth putting out. The difference in audio quality is due to it not being a professional studio setup, but rather the regular stream mic I use and a bit of EQ.

[Baahb3]

When I first tried this one, I got annoyed by all the singing. But I have to say it has grown on me.

Then one night I was watching Master and Commander and holy ****, they sang the same songs as the wave gem! Kudos to the research department.

Whelm and Dragon are probably my least favorite just because they are very difficult to hear if you have any other sound turned on.

[Marshal_Lannes]

1. Hopeful - My favorite and go-to gem. Actually feels like a companion rooting for you and vested in your success.
2. Wave - songs are so good that I sort of wish every gem had a tune. Bombastic in a swashbuckling Saturday afternoon way.
3. Kobald - sticks to the highly successful Crystal Cove/Challenges kobold theme. Since still no kobold race, the next best thing.
4. Dragon/Blackrazor - if I want an insidious, hard-to-understand, probably wants me dead feel to a weapon.

[lipidoidal_maniac]

I personally use and like the furious, hopeful and inquisitive. Fun to paste the comments when folks in party die.
Since the voices only play on the player's side of things, this would be a nice opportunity to make those sound files something we could provide ourselves based on the different events that activate them.
Having a Melicia gem in the store would sell like beer at a monster truck rally.

[Eantarus]

Kobald still hates you.