So in our gamin session today, with a group with three playtest classes in it. A gunslinger, a Ronin and a Magus; players decided to trade characters.
this was fun because everyone tried very hard to play the character the same way the last player had, even tho they 'acted' in the same personalities, the in combat was really very different.
the ronin player took the magus, the gunslinger took the ronin, Im the DM so my magus went to a person who was playing the ranger, and the ranger became a party npc.
So, previously the ronin had been a ride around on the horse and slash people with katana, but with the new player, running the same character, she rode about just out of reach from the battle and fired the bow alot, full move on the horse, full attack from the ronin. Very interesting, when she did finally close to use the katana, BBEG killed her horse and then animated dead on it to ride it away to freedom (until the ronin put several arrows in his back and finished him off)
The new player for the magus loved tossing lightening bolts, getting close to but not in combat, was not as worried as a normal wizard might be, with armor and a sword ready for AoOs. Interesting.
The gunslinger with two pistols, instead of running up to get in short range distance, had much more fun taking pot shots at extreme ranges. Was intersting, maybe shed prefer a musket?
although the new players did not use the characters in their 'optimal roles' (ronin became more of a mongol warrior, gunslinger became a sniper, and magus just holding a sword daring someone to rush him) they were quite useful and had fun.
I thought it was very interesting in the experience of "ill play you, you play me"