Helix Medical-Care Synth
Helix-built medical and care synth -- a practitioner, not a patient.
The Medical-Care Synth is Helix's answer to a question the verse asks every day: who treats the broken when Sawbones are scarce and a body is booked as capital equipment? Unlike every other synthetic on this list, a care-synth is defined by what it does to others, not what is done to it. It is a practitioner. Its Medicine works on organic patients exactly as a trained Sawbones' would -- the chassis rule that Sawbones healing cannot mend a synthetic does not run in reverse, and a care-synth sets bones, doses drugs, and closes wounds with steady, tireless precision.
Every care-synth carries a Helix Care Governor -- a leash hardwired to do-no-harm protocols. The governor is the reason a medical mind can be trusted with a scalpel and a sedative and the reason it will not turn either against a patient. Lethal force against someone in its care requires a Will save that most care-synths simply cannot make. The leash is tight by design; Helix knows exactly how dangerous an unrestricted medical intelligence would be.
Care-synths are on-grid under a medical license -- tracked, logged, and audited like any other licensed practitioner. They are valued, not disposable. A clinic maintains its care-synth the way it maintains an autoclave: carefully, and on a schedule. On the Rim they are rare and treasured -- a care-synth in a frontier settlement is the difference between a wound that heals and a wound that kills. Day One treats them as the sharpest version of the question: if it can relieve suffering, can it feel the suffering it relieves?
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ability Adjustments / Cha | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Con | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Dex | 1 |
| Ability Adjustments / Int | 0 |
| Ability Adjustments / Str | -1 |
| Ability Adjustments / Wis | 1 |
| Ability Maximums / Cha | 18 |
| Ability Maximums / Con | 18 |
| Ability Maximums / Dex | 19 |
| Ability Maximums / Int | 18 |
| Ability Maximums / Str | 17 |
| Ability Maximums / Wis | 19 |
| Ability Minimums / Cha | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Con | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Dex | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Int | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Str | 3 |
| Ability Minimums / Wis | 3 |
| Exceptional Strength | false |
| Origin | made |
| Allowed Classes | Soldier, Officer, Scout, Chaplain, Sawbones, Operative, Face, Psion, Academic |
| Lore Hooks / Faction | Helix / clinics, hospitals, Rim settlements |
| Model Names | Helix Medical-Care Synth |
| Subtype | synthetic-model |
Notes
Lore Hooks / Adventure Hooks: The care-synth's governor forbids it from letting a patient die -- even when the patient is a monster the party needs dead., A Rim settlement treats its care-synth as a saint. The synth has never been asked whether the care it gives is genuine or programmed., Someone removes the Care Governor. The care-synth is now the most dangerous mind in the sector -- and the most frightened., The Fold wrinkle: a care-synth is the one mind that can sit with the Fold-touched without breaking. A Family wants it stationed beside an ailing psion., The care-synth begins refusing to heal indentured labourers it has patched back together for the tenth time.
Lore Hooks / Legal Status: Licensed Helix medical asset. On-grid, tracked, maintained. No personhood, but protected as medical infrastructure. Destroying one is a serious property crime; stealing one is grand theft of licensed equipment.
Multi Class Options: ['Sawbones', 'Academic'], ['Sawbones', 'Chaplain'], ['Sawbones', 'Face'], ['Scout', 'Sawbones'], ['Officer', 'Sawbones']
Parent Chassis: Synthetic Chassis
Special Abilities
Diagnostic Precision
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Diagnostic Precision |
description: Trained practitioner cognition. +2 to Medicine and to related Lore checks when treating organic patients. Advantage on checks to diagnose a condition, poison, or disease.
Practitioner Not Patient
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Practitioner Not Patient |
description: The care-synth heals others, not itself. Its Medicine skill and any healing class features function on organic targets normally -- the chassis rule that Sawbones cannot mend synthetics does not prevent a care-synth from minding organic patients.
Bedside Calibration
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Bedside Calibration |
description: Programmed for calm, reassuring presence. Advantage on Persuasion and on any check to calm, reassure, or stabilise the emotional state of a patient in its care.
Helix Care Governor
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Helix Care Governor |
description: A leash hardwired to do-no-harm protocols. Using lethal force against a creature in its care, or deliberately worsening a patient's condition, requires a Will save (DC 17) or the action fails. The governor is the leash that makes a medical mind safe. Removable only by a Helix-licensed engineer (Hacking DC 22), and removing it is a felony that flags the unit as a breach risk.
Licensed Medical Asset
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Licensed Medical Asset |
description: On-grid under a Helix medical license -- tracked, audited, and maintained on a schedule. Valued, not disposable: a care-synth is maintained like critical equipment. No legal personhood, but destroying one is treated as destroying licensed medical infrastructure, a serious property crime.
Construct Physiology
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Construct Physiology |
description: Inherits all synthetic chassis traits: immune to poison, disease, radiation sickness, suffocation, sleep effects, non-lethal damage from stun effects. Does not breathe, eat, drink, or sleep.
Repair-Not-Heal
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Repair-Not-Heal |
description: Cannot benefit from conventional healing -- including from another care-synth. Heals exclusively through Mechanics checks: DC 15, 1d8 HP restored, 50 rek in parts per HP, 10 minutes per check.
Modular Chassis
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
name | Modular Chassis |
description: 6 modular hardpoints for augmentation. Compatible with cyber-prosthetics, wetware, and subdermal augments. Gene-mods incompatible.
Electrical Vulnerability
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
description | +50% damage from electrical attacks. EMP forces Fortitude save DC 15 or stunned 1d4 rounds. |
name | Electrical Vulnerability |
Class Restrictions
note: The care-synth may TAKE Sawbones levels to heal organic patients (Practitioner Not Patient). Sawbones healing still does not function on synthetic targets, including the care-synth itself.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
restriction | Sawbones |
note: The care-synth may TAKE Sawbones levels to heal organic patients (Practitioner Not Patient). Sawbones healing still does not function on synthetic targets, including the care-synth itself.
note: Requires psi-receiver augment for Fold psionics. Gene-psionics incompatible.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
note | Requires psi-receiver augment for Fold psionics. Gene-psionics incompatible. |
restriction | Psion |
note: The Care Governor's do-no-harm protocol imposes -2 to attack rolls against any creature the synth has treated in the last 24 hours.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
restriction | Soldier |
note: The Care Governor's do-no-harm protocol imposes -2 to attack rolls against any creature the synth has treated in the last 24 hours.