I am putting together a warlock for my next character, but I can't figure out which patron to choose. The concept for the warlock backstory is a half-elf from a middle-class family. He was smart growing up, but it became a point of pride such that he always wanted to have the answer for everything, causing him to seek out more knowledge constantly. The search for knowledge eventually drove him to creating a pact in hopes of obtaining further knowledge from the patron. The character's stats would focus primarily on charisma and intelligence with a Sage background, and the skill proficiencies would focus on the intelligence skills (history, arcana, investigation, nature, and religion, with insight thrown in as the final one). I'd pick up Pact of the Tome and Book of Ancient Secrets. I'd obviously give him some damage capabilities, but most of his spells would be utility spells for use in and out of combat to fit the concept and help out the group.
I thought a GOO might make sense because their description in the warlock class details says that their "knowledge [is] so immense and ancient that even the greatest libraries pale in comparison to the vast secrets it holds." But most if not all the GOO entities I've seen appear to be chaotic and/or evil, and most describe GOO warlocks as going crazy over time. I don't think I want to play out the going crazy theme (to the extent he hasn't gone crazy already by entering into a pact with his patron). I see the character as living through an internal debate between striving for more knowledge/ uncovering more mysteries of the universe (which led him to sell his soul to the patron), and realizing that perhaps he has gone too far. So I see his alignment more as a neutral (maybe with aspirations of being good) that gets caught up in a thirst for knowledge that sometimes takes over and blinds his decision-making.
Would a GOO still fit that theme? If so, is there a particular GOO that might make a good patron for this type of character? Or is there a different type of patron that would fit better?
I think a GOO patron would fit pretty good, you don't have to go the route of "going crazy". GOO doesn't always have to be something like cthulhu, you could imagine an aboleth or even some mysterious figure of unexplained origin that always was somewhere on the edges of reality.
I could also imagine a fiend as a patron for what you're describing, a devil that promissed you knoledge for your soul in a faustian deal.
Pretty much all of the other patrons could have prommissed you knowledge if you turn the right way. Just don't feel to restricted.
The Archive’s malevolent intelligence is cunning and alien. It does not communicate by words, but instead by the small twists of fate that led one to find the entrance and open the way themselves.
I am putting together a warlock for my next character, but I can't figure out which patron to choose. The concept for the warlock backstory is a half-elf from a middle-class family. He was smart growing up, but it became a point of pride such that he always wanted to have the answer for everything, causing him to seek out more knowledge constantly. The search for knowledge eventually drove him to creating a pact in hopes of obtaining further knowledge from the patron. The character's stats would focus primarily on charisma and intelligence with a Sage background, and the skill proficiencies would focus on the intelligence skills (history, arcana, investigation, nature, and religion, with insight thrown in as the final one). I'd pick up Pact of the Tome and Book of Ancient Secrets. I'd obviously give him some damage capabilities, but most of his spells would be utility spells for use in and out of combat to fit the concept and help out the group.
I thought a GOO might make sense because their description in the warlock class details says that their "knowledge [is] so immense and ancient that even the greatest libraries pale in comparison to the vast secrets it holds." But most if not all the GOO entities I've seen appear to be chaotic and/or evil, and most describe GOO warlocks as going crazy over time. I don't think I want to play out the going crazy theme (to the extent he hasn't gone crazy already by entering into a pact with his patron). I see the character as living through an internal debate between striving for more knowledge/ uncovering more mysteries of the universe (which led him to sell his soul to the patron), and realizing that perhaps he has gone too far. So I see his alignment more as a neutral (maybe with aspirations of being good) that gets caught up in a thirst for knowledge that sometimes takes over and blinds his decision-making.
Would a GOO still fit that theme? If so, is there a particular GOO that might make a good patron for this type of character? Or is there a different type of patron that would fit better?
I think a GOO patron would fit pretty good, you don't have to go the route of "going crazy". GOO doesn't always have to be something like cthulhu, you could imagine an aboleth or even some mysterious figure of unexplained origin that always was somewhere on the edges of reality.
I could also imagine a fiend as a patron for what you're describing, a devil that promissed you knoledge for your soul in a faustian deal.
Pretty much all of the other patrons could have prommissed you knowledge if you turn the right way. Just don't feel to restricted.
The Accursed Archive from the Compendium of Forgotten Secrets could serve as a good inspiration for a GOO patron:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/warlock/60965-need-ideas-for-a-fiendish-patron-accursed-archive
The Archive’s malevolent intelligence is cunning and alien. It does not communicate by words, but instead by the small twists of fate that led one to find the entrance and open the way
themselves.
What if your patron was the Codex of Infinite Planes? Would be kind of interesting if an artifact was the source of your power.