Funhouse mirror class pairs

[Shining Wrath]

Fun idea I just had: party steps through a portal for Reasons, and said portal resembles a "funhouse mirror", and on the other side:

Party is now L1.
Each PC retains their race, ability scores, alignment, feats, and most of their memories.
The twist: each PC now has a new class that is the "funhouse mirror" opposite of their previous class, and the default background for that class (the one recommended in the PHB).

Therefore, I need pairs of opposites. There's obviously no right answer ...

Barbarian <-> Wizard.
Bard <-> Monk.
Cleric <-> Rogue, except Trickster Clerics, who probably line up more with Devotion Paladins.
Druid <-> Warlock.
Fighter <-> Sorcerer.
Paladin <-> Ranger.

After 3-4 encounters suitable for a L1 party, party exits, returns to normal world, no XP but some minor magical items as a reward.

[Lalliman]

Interesting idea, though it brings up the problem of spell preparation for martials transforming into casters. Or casters transforming into other casters.

As for your choice of opposites, I feel like your reasoning is inconsistent. Barbarian and wizard are true opposites, whereas paladin and ranger are opposites in the sense that they are, as I see it, two sides of the same coin. By the paladin/ranger train of logic, I would argue that the opposite of wizard is sorcerer and the opposite of fighter is barbarian.

Of course, changing a barbarian into a wizard is much funnier, but a lot of classes don't have as obvious of a true opposite as wizard/barbarian does. So this arrangement, while imperfect, might be the best anyways.

Just some thinking out loud:
Warlock seems like a logical opposite to paladin, much more so than ranger.
Warlock could also be the opposite of cleric and rogue the opposite of paladin.
Problem is, both those options would force ranger to be opposite to druid, which, for obvious reasons, is silly.
You could put monk opposite druid instead (discipline vs nature), which makes about as much sense as monk vs bard, but leaves bard as the opposite of ranger, which doesn't make any sense.

Just food for thought.

[mamothpriest]

I actually think that Bard and Ranger are good as opposites for one another. With Bard, you have the rather obvious city-dweller and social expert. With Ranger, you tend to have the wilderness guy who is more comfortable alone than with a crowd.

[Lalliman]

Yeah, it does make some sense if you put it like that. So that gives the following as a possible alternative to the above.

Barbarian <-> Wizard
Bard <-> Ranger
Cleric <-> Warlock
Druid <-> Monk
Fighter <-> Sorcerer
Paladin <-> Rogue

[Belac93]

I would say do not get the opposites, just change them. Fun house mirrors aren't opposites, just twisted reflections of the original. So:

Warlock <-> Cleric (Both of them make deals with other beings)

Paladin <-> Rogue (Both of them kill, but one for gold and one for god)

Druid <-> Wizard (Both of them cast spells, but the druid learns from studying the spirits of the land, and wizard from studying arcane books)

Barbarian <-> Ranger (Both of them are wilderness warriors, but the barbarian gives in to his animal nature, and the ranger uses the power of the land to cast spells)

Bard <-> Sorcerer (Both of them are spellcasters, tapping into the magic of the weave, but the sorcerer does it through their bloodline, while the bard uses music)

Fighter <-> Monk (Both of them fight, but the idea of the fighter is that they use weapons, while the monk is unarmed)

You could even go deeper by giving alternates to the subclasses, such as Totem Warrior <-> Beastmaster, but I don't want to do that right now.

[JumboWheat01]

Another problem with opposites is that some classes, albeit similar at a glance, are also about as opposite as can be. Examples:

A Fighter and a Barbarian may be the "dumb brutes to hit things," but the Fighter is the heavily armored strategic fighter or agile archer, learning his trade, while the Barbarian is the do-it-yourself, smash it in the face guy.

A Wizard is the devoted studier of the Arcane, putting all their life into learning their art, unlike those "upstart" Sorcerers who just do it with no training what-so-ever. Those two never really get along.

A Cleric is more about civilized religion and devotion to the gods, while a Druid is a defender of the old faith, and doesn't really have time for all that civilization crap.

[Shining Wrath]

I have to agree that the Paladin - Ranger pairing is weak. Ranger - Bard as opposites does make some sort of sense. The easy way to fix that is then Paladin - Monk as a pair of opposites, which doesn't really work for me.

[Douche]

Yeah, it does make some sense if you put it like that. So that gives the following as a possible alternative to the above.

Barbarian <-> Wizard
Bard <-> Ranger
Cleric <-> Warlock
Druid <-> Monk
Fighter <-> Sorcerer
Paladin <-> Rogue

I like this layout much more.

Cleric is totally the polar opposite of a warlock. Paladin and rogue is a funny one too.

I do feel like you could swap Barb/Wiz and Fighter/Sorc. Since fighters and wizards study their craft, while sorcs and barbs naturally have it. So, they'd still be opposites, but also the same. Same same, but different. The way you have it is cool though.

The only ones that still stick out to me are bard/ranger and druid/monk. I think you could argue that a ranger and a druid both interact with nature - while the ranger wants to conquer it in a way, the druid wants to coexist with it. Meanwhile, a monk is all about self-control and moderation, whereas a bard would be about debauchery and enjoying yourself.

[Hudsonian]

I think this thread is full of good ideas. What about the possibility of having the players switch characters? Is there enough in-party shenanigans that it would be interesting? I would say that it would be basically like a mirror of Wild Shape. Everybody switches mental stats and memories. Unfortunately, this is heavily weighted towards the fighters/barbarians/rogues of the group but if you dictate who gets switched it might be less detrimental to the barbarian that gets stuffed into a wizard suit.