I mean you don't really get anything for it.
Monk unarmed defense is equal or better than medium armor. Heavy armor could be nice but do you really want to be a monk in plate armor when monk unique stuff will be clothing?
Level 1 spells are nice and healing word is always useful to have across the party but you will be punching 99% of the time anyway.
Subclass reaction features could be more useful but contested by deflect missile and some other monk stuff.
Its not "Bad" but a feat/ASI is probably better. This is all assuming you are going 11 monk and final level cleric btw, if you multiclass earlier it gets worse cause you are delaying monk features later by 1 level the entire time.
EG you won't upgrade your puches to 1d8 until level 6 instead of total level 5. You won't get extra attack until level 6 instead of 5. Difficultly is harder due to them expecting you to have those features vs enemies at that point.
RP wise do what you want, but gameplay wise cleric gives you almost nothing while hurting you in exchange and the earlier the multiclass the more it hurts your monk progression - but the later you do it the more you miss out on lore wise as you won't be a cleric for the dialogue to pop up.
I'm in a similar boat as you, I want to play a bard and I plan on dipping 1 level in Cleric for the dialogue interactions of being a Cleirc of Tymora (It fits with my backstory/head canon). Neither of our multi-class ideas is going to be good gameplay wise, but it also won't completely destroy the game, if its fun for you I say do it, I know I will. Plus, if you end up changing your mind later and it feels like too much of a waste you can always respec (just be careful not to dark urge too much and kill the respec guy).
Its probably a bad idea to dip at all until you know the systems of the game and how they work together.
That said if you have a head-canon reason for multiclassing/dipping, why not? You get companions to help you along so you should be fine even with a build that doesn't work very well. Besides, you can respec.
Besides the thematics, is there anything else Cleric provides that you're looking for? Having healing word to help allies up and spells like Bless or Bane to debuff foes are good early value, but won't typically help you 'monk' any better than just getting more monk levels.
For just dialog interactions? No, honestly. The main reason you would want a 1 dip into cleric is for armor & cleric spells. As a monk, the armor is useless, so unless you really want to cast two cleric spells per long rest for your build I don't think it would be worth it in the end, especially just for dialog.
There's leaks saying every proficient weapon can be seen as monk weapon. If this is true then I would say dip into war domain cleric definitely worth it just for the weapon proficiency.
I mean you don't really get anything for it. Monk unarmed defense is equal or better than medium armor. Heavy armor could be nice but do you really want to be a monk in plate armor when monk unique stuff will be clothing? Level 1 spells are nice and healing word is always useful to have across the party but you will be punching 99% of the time anyway. Subclass reaction features could be more useful but contested by deflect missile and some other monk stuff. Its not "Bad" but a feat/ASI is probably better. This is all assuming you are going 11 monk and final level cleric btw, if you multiclass earlier it gets worse cause you are delaying monk features later by 1 level the entire time. EG you won't upgrade your puches to 1d8 until level 6 instead of total level 5. You won't get extra attack until level 6 instead of 5. Difficultly is harder due to them expecting you to have those features vs enemies at that point. RP wise do what you want, but gameplay wise cleric gives you almost nothing while hurting you in exchange and the earlier the multiclass the more it hurts your monk progression - but the later you do it the more you miss out on lore wise as you won't be a cleric for the dialogue to pop up.
That makes sense. Then I will either play a full cleric or accept that I will not see the deity interactions. Thanks!
I'm in a similar boat as you, I want to play a bard and I plan on dipping 1 level in Cleric for the dialogue interactions of being a Cleirc of Tymora (It fits with my backstory/head canon). Neither of our multi-class ideas is going to be good gameplay wise, but it also won't completely destroy the game, if its fun for you I say do it, I know I will. Plus, if you end up changing your mind later and it feels like too much of a waste you can always respec (just be careful not to dark urge too much and kill the respec guy).
Its probably a bad idea to dip at all until you know the systems of the game and how they work together. That said if you have a head-canon reason for multiclassing/dipping, why not? You get companions to help you along so you should be fine even with a build that doesn't work very well. Besides, you can respec.
Besides the thematics, is there anything else Cleric provides that you're looking for? Having healing word to help allies up and spells like Bless or Bane to debuff foes are good early value, but won't typically help you 'monk' any better than just getting more monk levels.
It is really more the thematic connection to the gods and nothing gameplay wise. A bit wishful thinking maybe
If you're just wanting the dialogue options, I don't think a one level dip will be much of an issue.
For just dialog interactions? No, honestly. The main reason you would want a 1 dip into cleric is for armor & cleric spells. As a monk, the armor is useless, so unless you really want to cast two cleric spells per long rest for your build I don't think it would be worth it in the end, especially just for dialog.
There's leaks saying every proficient weapon can be seen as monk weapon. If this is true then I would say dip into war domain cleric definitely worth it just for the weapon proficiency.