Geth

GETH

''Organics fear us. We wish to understand, not incite.”– Legion ''

RACIAL TRAITS

Average Height: 6' 0"-6' 6"

Average Weight: 270-300 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity or +2 Intelligence

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Normal

Languages: Basic, Geth

Skill Bonuses: +2 Repair, +2 Mechanics

Synthetic Construct: You are a synthetic machine designed by the Quarians.

You gain the following benefits:

• You do not need to eat, drink, breathe or sleep. You never make Endurance checks to resist the effect of starvation, thirst or suffocation.

• All other conditions (corrosive poisons, radiation etc.) and effects still affect you normally.

• You are immune to diseases.

• You cannot choose classes with the Biotic Power Source.

• You are subject to powers and conditions affecting Synthetic targets.

• When you make a death saving throw, you can take the better result of your die roll or 10.

Unsleeping Watcher: You do not sleep and instead enter a state of inactivity for 4 hours to gain benefits of an extended rest. While in this state, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

Hive Mind: You have a +1 racial bonus to your Will. In addition, you gain a +2 bonus to saving throws to resist fear effects.

When selecting a Geth, choose one of the following powers:

Geth Shield Boost: You can use Geth Shield Boost as an encounter power.

Geth Shield Boost Geth Racial Power 

''You activate your advanced shield boosting capabilities, allowing you to deflect incoming fire. ''

Encounter * Shield 

Minor Action Personal 

Effect: You gain a number of temporary shield points equal to 3 + one half your level. In addition you gain Resist All 3+ one half your level until the end of your next turn.

-OR-

Enhanced Optics: You can use Enhanced Optics as an encounter power.

Enhanced Optics Geth Racial Power 

''You enhance your firing reticule briefly, allowing you to scan and search for potential weaknesses on your target. ''

Encounter 

Minor Action Personal 

Effect: If you have combat advantage against a target, you deal +1d8 damage on the next attack roll you make against that target. You must apply the bonus before the end of your next turn.

Increase the extra damage to +2d8 at 11th level and +3d8 at 21st level.

Having rid themselves the bonds of slavery by their Quarian masters 300 years ago, the Geth are Synthetics trying to find their own place within the galaxy. Recently, the Geth have splintered into two factions, with one throwing its lot with the Reapers, whom they view as gods. The remaining Geth now try to find some way of establishing peace, not only with their heretic brothers, but with the rest of the known galaxy.

Play a Geth if you want. ..

• To be agile, tough, and built for battle.

• To be a creature feared by all organic races in the galaxy, but searching for your own place in the

galaxy.

• To be a member of a race that favors the Engineer, Infiltrator and Soldier classes.

Overview 

The geth are a race of networked artificial intelligences that reside beyond the Perseus Veil. The geth were created by the quarians, as laborers and tools of war. When the geth became sentient and began to question their masters, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war, and reduced the quarians to a race of nomads. The history of the geth's creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and to the legally enforced, systematic repression of artificial intelligences throughout galactic society.

Physical Qualities 

Physically, the humanoid geth resemble quarians—their hands, head shape and legs are similar—which is probably a holdover from their origins. They are described as having "flashlight heads". Geth are built of two materials, a large plastic or steel outer shell, and a kind of synthetic muscle tissue that gives Geth Hoppers their incredible agility. It is actually possible for this synthetic muscle to be grafted to organic tissue. Geth "bleed" a white conductive fluid when shot, but they don't have any internal organs or nervous system, so the geth don't feel hunger or pain. The geth are also seen using omni-tools, and have seemingly modified them to heal

synthetic wounds.

Part of the geth's success is due to their neural network. Effectively, they "share" their processing power, distributing lowlevel processes like motor control and visual identification to free up bandwidth for higher reasoning and complex thought. Geth can't share sensory data—they aren't a hive mind like the rachni—but in large groups they have more to think with. An individual geth has only a basic intelligence on par with animal instincts, but in groups they can reason, analyze situations, and use tactics as well as any of the organic races. An exception would appear to be Legion, a geth specifically designed to operate as an autonomous sentient unit outside the Perseus Veil. Legion possesses over 11 times as many geth programs as a standard geth platform and can function intellectually on its own. According to a geth platform named Legion, each geth is made up of hundreds of programs equivalent to VIs, all operating in parallel with one another to form a kind of emergent intelligence. An individual geth is thus more of a "mobile platform" than an actual body; the programs that make up its consciousness are constantly being transferred and downloaded; the mind operating one of these "mobile platforms" might just as easily inhabit a starship body should it need to. Most of the time geth programs can be found residing in server hubs, which function as something akin to the organic equivalent of a city, and can run millions of geth in communion.

As all geth are networked to each other, they may communicate their exact thoughts and ideas at the speed of light. They find organic methods of communication, such as body language and spoken word, to be largely inefficient; the geth are able to communicate their thoughts flawlessly without any fear of misinterpretation. Because of this they have no true form of government and no system of rank. When a matter must be decided upon, the geth communicate all viewpoints of a situation and a consensus is made, the decision being whatever benefits the geth as a whole the greatest.

Playing a Geth 

The geth are reclusive and secretive. This is partly due to their synthetic nature. They have no need to interact with other races because they do not share the same goals, needs or instincts as organic species. As machines, comfort is also not a concern for them, something that is reflected in elements of geth ship and station design (e.g., minimal gravity, efficient use of space, function over form, lack of atmosphere, and absence of climate control).

According to Legion, geth do not actually live on any of the quarian planets they conquered, serving merely as caretakers for them instead. They find it more efficient to live on space stations and draw resources from asteroids, though they maintain mobile platforms on the worlds to clear rubble and toxins left by the Morning War. Legion likens this behavior to the human tendency to establish cemeteries and memorials to commemorate dead persons and tragic events. However, since geth do not "die" in any traditional sense (upon the destruction of a geth platform, its programs are simply transmitted to the nearest available platform) and so have no real losses to mourn from the Morning War, Legion posits that they instead clean and maintain the quarian worlds out of respect for their quarian creators who died in the conflict and in preparation for the eventuality of their return.

The only geth who have interacted significantly with organics aside from the Legion platform are a sect that Legion refers to as the "heretics". They are a small, radical group of geth who worship a hyper-advanced but long-vanished machine race called the Reapers, whom they see as the pinnacle of non-organic evolution. This group is estimated to consist of about five percent of the total geth population. According to Legion, the geth are content to stay separate from the remainder of Citadel space to "build their own future" and claim that all sentient creatures should have the ability to "self-determinate", strictly adhering to a policy of noninterventionism in respect to the affairs and development of other races. The geth primarily seek the peaceful advancement of their

own race independent of the influence of the rest of galactic society and believe every sentient species should be able to do the same, an attitude which suggests the geth may be significantly less hostile than the galactic community initially believed. Depending on the context, the term "geth" refers to an individual program, mobile platforms which house a number of individual programs, or the entire collection of all programs. Organics generally refer to each mobile platform as a geth. However, the geth think in terms of the entire collection.

Geth psychology is completely alien to organics. They do not value individuality, preferring to share all memories and thoughts of all programs regularly. This means geth cannot and do not wish to hide their thoughts, even those that do not follow the norm, with their reasoning for such thought being apparent. Legion often uses the term "we" instead of "I", since it is both part of the geth society as a whole and is also a gestalt of over a thousand geth programs.

More importantly, deceit, manipulation and lying are impossible among the geth. No concepts of vulnerability or privacy exist; geth are completely honest with each other about their thoughts and their reasons for those thoughts. This means there is a great deal of understanding amongst geth, with every geth being a combination of every other geth. Geth have no government or leaders; the geth use FTL communications to "build a consensus"; a completely Consensus Democratic method of every geth program making their choice on any matter. Even within Legion itself, consensus must be reached among its many programs before decisions can be made.

However, the geth are not above using deceit to study organic behavior. One example is the geth introducing a falsified report on the extranet detailing a constellation resembling a salarian goddess seen from the batarian homeworld, which the salarians immediately believed to be proof of the goddess' existence. The experiment ended when a salarian cult bought rights to the stars, only to find that they did not exist.

There is some question of whether geth personalities remain stable over time. When an artificial intelligence is transferred to a new blue box, a completely new personality is created. Geth download into different hardware according to need, from starships to the "mobile platforms" that many are familiar with. It is unknown whether new personalities result from these downloads, or whether it matters to the geth. As a result, what organics would describe as geth culture is either non-existent, or is in a form incomprehensible to organic life.

Names: Geth don’t have individual names (since they are effectively a Collective), though some have shown to be an exception. Legion, for example, chose his name based upon a verse in the Christian bible: "My name is Legion, for we are many".

Geth Adventurers 

Two sample Geth adventurers are described below.

[To Be Completed]