Help on Warlock dipping/multiclassing

[gee]

I am currently a level 2 GOO Warlock with the following stats (rolled a 5 on my very last roll):
STR - 12
DEX - 16
CON - 13
INT - 5
WIS - 13
CHA - 18

My idea is that I will mostly use Eldritch Blast in combat, along with some control spells to back up the party when necessary. The rest of the party consists of rogue, paladin, and ranger. I am a very "flavor-centric" person, in that I don't care so much about mechanics but I like to have some kind of theme to a character, however this is my first real caster as I pretty much always go some sort of fighter/barbarian/rogue/monk so I am having trouble with the flavor and stopping myself from turning myself into a bladelock. I would like some ideas for that "flavor" and how I might achieve it with either a full single-class warlock, or with some dipping/multiclassing.
I realize this is not much to go on but I'm hoping some of your responses will spark something.

Thanks in advance!

[lordshadowisle]

Yeah, INT is a stat I hate to roll poorly on, as it can limit the scope of plausible in-character actions. Thankfully, there are a few ways out of this situation.

Your character is a warlock. You can roleplay being dumb for most of the time, but those good ideas you occasionally have? Instructions from your patron. For correct flavor, act as if the character don't know how the idea actually works.

You can also take the pact of the chain. That special familiar you have? It's an overseer sent by your patron because you're a dummy. You're just the dumb muscle.

[Joe the Rat]

With GOO, you could flavor the low INT as a bit of "madness" - Your contact with your patron has left you a bit addled. You have trouble remembering things (all those Int(knowledge) skills), following clues (Investigation) or keeping ideas strung together for any amount of time. Ditzy in an endearing way (given that Charisma). Perhaps you've got a mission from your tentacular Patron... but you aren't quite sure what it was.

As the only arcanist in the group, you might want to consider Tome Warlock. More cantrips (shillelagh lets you pretend to be a bladelock in a pinch, guidance for those rare times you need to be successful, vicious mockery for the absurdity, etc.), all the rituals your party would ever need - which is a LOT of utility (work with your DM - you might need the Sage background feature to track down said rituals), and every bit the appearance of a deranged academic. You've got a big binder full of scribbly notes, are on point for all manner of crazy cult antics, but are otherwise hilariously incompetent at being a scholar.

lordshadowisle's Chain pact idea is really good. If you go this way, I'd go for the Imp or Quasit, which would let the (shapechanging) familiar act as your (the player's) mouthpiece for good ideas.

Pally and the ranger (depending on choices) can cover healing, but the party needs more support you could grab a dash of Bard.

[gee]

Thanks for the assistance from both of you. I got some really great ideas on how I can play this instead of just the "dumb blonde" I was thinking of originally (no offense to any blondes :smallsmile: )

[Markoff Chainey]

I play a lvl8 GOO Tomelock and actually planned to play a lvl2 Lock / Sorc X... but I grew so fond of the char that I went further and further. My backstory is that he was "working with the mindflayers" (he is also quite dumb and did not realize that he is actually enslaved) when the rest of the party crossed an underdark city that is controlled by the Illithids. - He himself was compelled to the city because the mindflayers and he share their "patron". The mindflayers sent him with the adventurers in order to spy on them.

His abilities are incredibly useful in underdark campaigns with at least some social components and I cannot wait to get back to my "homecity" after lvl 10 when the "mindworms" cannot read my thoughts anymore... muahahahaha ;)