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Well, I do think the system works a lot better if fighters (and a few others) got their attack bonus even higher, to be honest. Besides, with the rules for fragile weapons, they are going to need it when they have to reach for a nearby big rock because their primary and secondary weapons just broke.
This problem goes away as soon as the character gets a Masterwork weapon.
Besides, your typical high strength beatstick can casually carry 20 clubs without breaking a sweat. They aren't going to run out of weapons. It's hard to stop them too, since clubs are literally just a shaped piece of wood.
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Hello.
doing modification (aint we all!) to some classes and stuff for my own Stone-Age world/setting/campaign/settings.
a)I feel ONLY fighters should have a +1 BAB.
Barbarians have a 3/4 BAB like Clerics etc. what do you feel I should give them to compensate for this (I have my own thoughts but I'd love to see you ideas)
b) I feel Rage and the bonuses it grants should have a chaotic, unpredictable, uncontrollable element to them, not just the flat "+2 hit and damage" that we all quote. How would you introduce this to the class feature "Rage"?Thanks,
Morlaf (The bringer of Chaos)Full BAB is what defines a purely martial class. Cleric types simulate a warrior priest with their 3/4 BAB, but that's because they also have full spellcasting as a dominant feature.
Barbarians are a full bab class becuse they are trained to be competent warriors even when they're not foaming at the mouth. Your premise for making the change falls flat on it's face.
Make this change for Paladins and you turn into an essentially useless class when putting them up against enemies they can't smite.
Don't make this change for Paladins and making it for Barbarians only, is simply singling them out for reasons you can't back up.
Fighters do get their definition from both the extra amount of combat feats they get and the per level training in armor and weapons mastery. They remain the only class that can wear full armor at full speed without resort to magic.
Talk to me some more about Paladins please (my session will not have them, but quite a few ppl have said what you have): If you cannot smite ppl, Paladins are rubbish? is that what you are saying?
as for "singling out barbarians" this is not for vendetta reasons but rather reasons of ambiance and the vision that: "Fighters alone should get a +1 BAB - in my opinion!"
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Talk to me some more about Paladins please (my session will not have them, but quite a few ppl have said what you have): If you cannot smite ppl, Paladins are rubbish? is that what you are saying?
No, that's not what I'm saying. Unless you're of the crowd that defines "rubbish" as not dominating the scene, in which case, I have nothing useful to add to your discussion.
When Paladins are facing an enemy they can't smite, they're brought back down to earth in dealing with issues such as DR, they may have limited or no spell capability, depending on level. And they're not going to have as many combat feats as a fighter of the same level.
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Well, I do think the system works a lot better if fighters (and a few others) got their attack bonus even higher, to be honest. Besides, with the rules for fragile weapons, they are going to need it when they have to reach for a nearby big rock because their primary and secondary weapons just broke.
Yes, i want that to be the case.
PCs and NPC will, on occasion, have to get their hands dirty.
Yes, i want that to be the case.
PCs and NPC will, on occasion, have to get their hands dirty.
The problem is this again hits warriors, who rely on weapons, while casters don´t give a south end of a north-bound rat about that. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but the less you rely on weapon damage, the less you care about weapon breakage. This is less of an issue if you rule that masterwork weapons don't break, but from what I got about your setting masterwork weapons should be quite rare themselves.
I get the idea of making fighters the warriors of the warriors, but I think it works better by improving them rather than hitting all other warriors (paladins, barbarians, rangers, slayers etc), because that throws them off in direct competition with the next BAB bracket, and as I said quite a few times, those kids have some serious mojo on top of their BAB. You end up either screwing several classes or having to rework almost every class to match the newly changed ones.
Why not give the fighters something along the lines of +1 BAB every 5 leves, extra AC from armor training (since there are no or few heavy armors in that setting, the current one isn't worth much) and a few other goodies instead? That way barbs can get their fun new thing and still wreck face, while not be as good with weapons as fighters are.
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Morlaf,
I will try to be very clear and polite, and I hope constructive in the advice I give you here.
My one request is that you be clear, as complete as possible, and unambiguous in your responses.
If I understand correctly your current plan is to
Barb BAB = 3/4.
in my Caveman session only fighters have BAB = 1.
Barbarians will be at 3/4's BaB.
Barbarians get Rage for free which is a feat that any1 can have (Str and BAB pre-requisits exist).
Rage is a feat that Barbarians gain as a bonus feat at level 1.
Question 1.) What are the prerequisites for the rage feat?
Question 2.) Are Greater Rage and Mighty Rage available as feats in your game?
Question 3.) If the answer to Question 2 is yes what are their prerequisites?
Question 4.) If the answer to Question 2 is yes does the Barbarian get these feats for free at the same levels they got Greater and Mighty rage in pathfinder?
But as an option they can enter a Warp Spasm (which will be called something else, so as to not further offend the creators of Slaine). This will grant further bonuses in combat (the specifics I shall not bore you with). Some the player will choose so as to allow Character Customisation. Others will be rolled randomly, as the Gift of Mother Nature attempting to protect its Chosen One is, in part, uncontrollable.A round of Warp Spasm costs 2 (or more) rounds of Rage and at the end the Barbarian is left a lot worse off than simply "Fatigued".
A new mechanic called here "Warp Spasm" but with the name to be changed, will allow for use of powers that are not specified.
Question 5.) What exactly are the mechanics of "Warp Spasm"? Please include all details.
Question 6.) How many new "further bonuses" is Warp Spasm going to grant exactly? For example a normal barbarian gains 10 rage powers over his leveling career from 1-20. How many Warp Spasm powers will the new barbarian get?
Question 7.) You say some powers will be chosen by the player and some rolled randomly. What exactly do you mean? How many of each type does a player get, and when you say rolled randomly is that only to see what powers a character possesses or is this rolled each Warp Spasm?
Question 8.) You say the penalty for Warp Spasm will be greater than simply fatigued. What exactly will the penalty be?
As I have only recently decided on the path I wish to follow I do not have the full facts yet. But the Barbarian can enter a Warp Spasm, while in Rage and he will get boring things like:
Darkvision, increased speed.... Nice-ish things like: extra attacks, extra str, natural armour.... and Epic things like: increased size, area affects, Damage reduction, Fast healing etc. These will be level dependant and random.
Here we have examples of Warp Spasm powers.
Question 9.) You separate this into three types, "boring", "nice-ish", and "epic". How many of each and at what level are these granted?
Question 10.) Are all of these random or only the "epic" things?
The player will choose Path of Surrender in which case he gets more stuff but unpredictable or the Path of Reigns: where he attempts to harness mother nature and gets fewer stuff but has a better chance of controlling them.
Here we have the definition of two separate Warp Spasm paths.
Question 11.) You say Path of Surrender gives "more stuff but unpredictable". What exactly does this mean? More powers but a random number and type upon entering a warp spasm? Please give details.
Question 12.) You say Path of Reigns "gets fewer stuff but has a better chance of controlling them." Does this mean that all Warp Spasm powers are random and if so how? How do the paths work exactly?
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So to be clear your design goals are:
A.) Reduce Barbarian to 3/4 BaB
Barb BAB = 3/4.
in my Caveman session only fighters have BAB = 1.
B.) Do not nerf barbarians.
I precisely want to avoid making them "ostensibly worse", which is why I asked for opinions/ideas........
C.) Make Barbarian a more Nova based Class.
To use a nomenclature I have only recently been aware of, they are becoming a more NOVA class.
D.) Introduce a more random element to Barbarians.
I feel Rage and the bonuses it grants should have a chaotic, unpredictable, uncontrollable element to them, not just the flat "+2 hit and damage" that we all quote. How would you introduce this to the class feature "Rage"?
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To do this you are proposing the following:
1.) Reduce Barbarians to 3/4 BaB.
2.) Make Rage a non-class specific ability thus allowing other classes to gain rage and perhaps rage powers?
3.) Introduce a new super rage that you are calling "Warp Spasm" for now.
4.) Introduce new super rage powers that Warp Spasm grants you.
5.) Make these new powers random is some way.
6.) Introduce a new "Path" mechanic to Barbarians.
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If you want this to be successful and if you want good feedback, I would say you need the following.
A.) A completed and detailed write up of Warp Surge.
B.) A completed and detailed write up of Warp Surge Powers.
C.) A completed and detailed write up of Warp Surge Paths.
D.) A completed and detailed write up of all changes to the barbarian you have planned.
It seems to me you have ideas, and now is the time to take the raw ore of those ideas and forge it into the steel of actual mechanics. It may not be perfect the first time, that is ok, my stuff never is, but by writing it out and getting feedback you will develop a more complete and fun system for your new barbarian.
I hope this helps!
so that you can tell me, in your opinion what compensates for a drop of BAB from 1 to 3/4?
You can't make up for it unless you give them spellcasting or something similar to spellcasting. This is the point everyone else is trying to make. This is a game design issue.
The BAB is why you want to play a martial. With rare exception, 3/4 BAB is reserved for 6-level arcane spellcasters or 9-level divine spellcasters. By lowering a barbarian's BAB, you only encourage players to prefer spellcasters over martials. Since magic is supposed to be rare in your campaign, this will create the exact opposite effect you're trying to accomplish.
If you're determined to lower the barbarian's and other martial's BAB to 3/4, your options are:
A) Ban 6-level and 9-level spellcasters.
B) Completely rework all martial classes from scratch with a complete suite of class features comparable to spellcasting. This would require an insane amount of work and be very difficult to balance.
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Yes, i want that to be the case.
PCs and NPC will, on occasion, have to get their hands dirty.The problem is this again hits warriors, who rely on weapons, while casters don´t give a south end of a north-bound rat about that. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but the less you rely on weapon damage, the less you care about weapon breakage. This is less of an issue if you rule that masterwork weapons don't break, but from what I got about your setting masterwork weapons should be quite rare themselves.
I get the idea of making fighters the warriors of the warriors, but I think it works better by improving them rather than hitting all other warriors (paladins, barbarians, rangers, slayers etc), because that throws them off in direct competition with the next BAB bracket, and as I said quite a few times, those kids have some serious mojo on top of their BAB. You end up either screwing several classes or having to rework almost every class to match the newly changed ones.
Why not give the fighters something along the lines of +1 BAB every 5 leves, extra AC from armor training (since there are no or few heavy armors in that setting, the current one isn't worth much) and a few other goodies instead? That way barbs can get their fun new thing and still wreck face, while not be as good with weapons as fighters are.
"don´t give a south end of a north-bound rat"
???love it!
stealing it!
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so that you can tell me, in your opinion what compensates for a drop of BAB from 1 to 3/4?You can't make up for it unless you give them spellcasting or something similar to spellcasting. This is the point everyone else is trying to make. This is a game design issue.
The BAB is why you want to play a martial. With rare exception, 3/4 BAB is reserved for 6-level arcane spellcasters or 9-level divine spellcasters. By lowering a barbarian's BAB, you only encourage players to prefer spellcasters over martials. Since magic is supposed to be rare in your campaign, this will create the exact opposite effect you're trying to accomplish.
If you're determined to lower the barbarian's and other martial's BAB to 3/4, your options are:
A) Ban 6-level and 9-level spellcasters.
B) Completely rework all martial classes from scratch with a complete suite of class features comparable to spellcasting. This would require an insane amount of work and be very difficult to balance.
thanks for that - I see where you are coming from.
Do you not believe that a power (lets call it Warp Spasm for now) that works like an enhanced Rage that grants them increased str/con, an area affect damage, an extra attack, nat. armour, dam. red., fast heal, reach, size increase etc can ever compensate?
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so that you can tell me, in your opinion what compensates for a drop of BAB from 1 to 3/4?You can't make up for it unless you give them spellcasting or something similar to spellcasting. This is the point everyone else is trying to make. This is a game design issue.
The BAB is why you want to play a martial. With rare exception, 3/4 BAB is reserved for 6-level arcane spellcasters or 9-level divine spellcasters. By lowering a barbarian's BAB, you only encourage players to prefer spellcasters over martials. Since magic is supposed to be rare in your campaign, this will create the exact opposite effect you're trying to accomplish.
If you're determined to lower the barbarian's and other martial's BAB to 3/4, your options are:
A) Ban 6-level and 9-level spellcasters.
B) Completely rework all martial classes from scratch with a complete suite of class features comparable to spellcasting. This would require an insane amount of work and be very difficult to balance.thanks for that - I see where you are coming from.
Do you not believe that a power (lets call it Warp Spasm for now) that works like an enhanced Rage that grants them increased str/con, an area affect damage, an extra attack, nat. armour, dam. red., fast heal, reach, size increase etc can ever compensate?
Well, if those Warp Spasm powers will be random, your 3/4 BAB Barbarian could end up with, say, darkvision, 10' reach, Fast Healing 5 and AoE fire damage attack ... which means that he still sucks at combat compared to any full BAB class.
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Well, if those Warp Spasm powers will be random, your 3/4 BAB Barbarian could end up with, say, darkvision, 10' reach, Fast Healing 5 and AoE fire damage attack ... which means that he still sucks at combat compared to any full BAB class.so that you can tell me, in your opinion what compensates for a drop of BAB from 1 to 3/4?You can't make up for it unless you give them spellcasting or something similar to spellcasting. This is the point everyone else is trying to make. This is a game design issue.
The BAB is why you want to play a martial. With rare exception, 3/4 BAB is reserved for 6-level arcane spellcasters or 9-level divine spellcasters. By lowering a barbarian's BAB, you only encourage players to prefer spellcasters over martials. Since magic is supposed to be rare in your campaign, this will create the exact opposite effect you're trying to accomplish.
If you're determined to lower the barbarian's and other martial's BAB to 3/4, your options are:
A) Ban 6-level and 9-level spellcasters.
B) Completely rework all martial classes from scratch with a complete suite of class features comparable to spellcasting. This would require an insane amount of work and be very difficult to balance.thanks for that - I see where you are coming from.
Do you not believe that a power (lets call it Warp Spasm for now) that works like an enhanced Rage that grants them increased str/con, an area affect damage, an extra attack, nat. armour, dam. red., fast heal, reach, size increase etc can ever compensate?
This is a concern, indeed. some player-testing to iron out. not all aspects will be random. but I think something like this could work....
so that you can tell me, in your opinion what compensates for a drop of BAB from 1 to 3/4?You can't make up for it unless you give them spellcasting or something similar to spellcasting. This is the point everyone else is trying to make. This is a game design issue.
The BAB is why you want to play a martial. With rare exception, 3/4 BAB is reserved for 6-level arcane spellcasters or 9-level divine spellcasters. By lowering a barbarian's BAB, you only encourage players to prefer spellcasters over martials. Since magic is supposed to be rare in your campaign, this will create the exact opposite effect you're trying to accomplish.
If you're determined to lower the barbarian's and other martial's BAB to 3/4, your options are:
A) Ban 6-level and 9-level spellcasters.
B) Completely rework all martial classes from scratch with a complete suite of class features comparable to spellcasting. This would require an insane amount of work and be very difficult to balance.thanks for that - I see where you are coming from.
Do you not believe that a power (lets call it Warp Spasm for now) that works like an enhanced Rage that grants them increased str/con, an area affect damage, an extra attack, nat. armour, dam. red., fast heal, reach, size increase etc can ever compensate?
Short Answer: Probably not.
Long Answer: Spellcasting is such a powerful, robust class feature that it has an entire chapter in the Core Rulebook dedicated to it. 6-level arcane spellcasters and 9-level spellcasters often receive many powerful class features and sometimes lots of skill points to supplement it in order to stay competitive with full casters and martials. It would be very difficult to have a single power stay competitive with the enormous suite of abilities that other 3/4 BAB classes have.
You're proposing having a single class feature do the job of an entire class-worth of abilities. In order to compensate, you'd have to make that ability so ridiculously powerful that it would be a nightmare to balance and design. Even professional game designers would consider this a significant challenge. D&D 3.5 and PF 3rd party books have plenty of examples of professional game designers completely screwing up attempts at a non-spellcasting 3/4 BAB class. Class design is very hard.
Even if you somehow succeeded in making this ability balanced enough, I think most players would still prefer a spellcasting class like the druid, magus, bard, or summoner. You still have the problem where playing a spellcaster or a superhuman with mutant powers is the only way to play a combat caveman in a low-magic caveman setting.
On another note, I don't know much about this warp spasm ability, but it sounds like it would make a pretty interesting bloodrager bloodline or archetype.
Let's look at this from a slightly different angle. Your proposed change does the following: imparts an effective -1 to -5 on all attack rolls, removes one attack from the full-attack sequence (from Level 6 onward), and delays access to certain Feats.
To avoid nerfing the class, do the following:
When Raging, a scaling STR bonus OR a scaling to-hit bonus
A free extra attack when full-attacking OR a modified Flurry-of-Blows
Use class level in place of BAB to meet Feat prerequisits
Rage Powers
For Warp Spasm to be an equivalent substitute, it needs to be equivalent to a Bloodrager bloodline + 4th-level spellcasting.
Finally, making Rage a Feat means the Barbarian doesn't have a niche anymore. The solution is to make Rage do something unique for Barbarians.
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As things stand right now, your players would almost-certainly just play a Bloodrager.
Hmm. I was thinking about this for a bit, and wanted to come up with something that would allow for either nova'ing or longer use. A simple solution I had was either giving them a second pool scaling like rage does (maybe granting Eidolon evolutions or something) or just giving them a second, stacking rage. You can either spend one pool then the other, giving you a much longer adventuring day, or you can spend both pools at once in order to nova.
As to Warp Spasm, sure. If it grants half the bonus to attack that the Barbarian lost (rounded up) and grants an extra attack at full BAB (like Haste does) starting at sixth level, then it nearly balances everything but late feat access. As a bonus, if they miss their attack on a charge, let them make the extra attack. Give Barbarians Power Attack as a bonus feat at second level (letting bonus damage scale and the penalty scale as if Barb had full BAB), and you're probably good. Just leave Barbarian with their d12 hit die. If you want to do something fancier, you can, but this is a simple solution that works by giving back full BAB in all but name (while still keeping their attack bonus below Fighter).
I have to reiterate a question you haven't responded to Morlaf; are the other full-BAB classes available? Because Ranger, Cavalier (Huntsmen of the wild, beast tamers, etc...) work very well in a primitive setting thematically, and the warp spasm thing already exists in the Bloodrager (Check out the Abyssal and Aberrant bloodlines). It just seems like a lot of unneeded work on your end to weaken the Barbs base attack bonus, and compensate for it, while keeping it from being weaker, or stronger. All for the sake of themes that don't really hold up.
The thing about homebrew class design is that, for the most part, you don't need to. As long as the overall goal is a fantasy adventure party centered around a few notable people in a team, Pathfinder does just fine in providing that. As for being in a specific, stone-age setting, mandating some archetypes and restricting equipment options is usually as far as anyone needs to go. This would need a pile of house rules, but house rules that are already out there for the tweaking.
With the myriad options for barbarians, skalds, and bloodragers, something is there for what you want. If it turns out not exactly what you want, tweaking can be done. It's your game.
But my suggestion is to start there, using what's already made, and make adjustments accordingly.
This way, you can be very specific and not give away any details you'd be uncomfortable with, and everyone here can have a more firm grasp on your goal.
as for "singling out barbarians" this is not for vendetta reasons but rather reasons of ambiance and the vision that: "Fighters alone should get a +1 BAB - in my opinion!"
LOL!!!
Then stop with this ridonkeylips thread! Give your Fighters a 5/4 BAB and stop trying to justify changing the barbarian!!!
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I really, REALLY want to believe this is a troll thread but it is just too damn good to be true.
For reasons of ambiance, fighters don't belong in a low tech caveman style game. They are way too based on a medieval level of technology. You probably want to just take the slayer and call it a fighter.
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While it's unfortunate that a lot of the responses in this thread haven't been particularly helpful (true, maybe, but not helpful), I am not the slightest bit surprised that the thread ended up this way, and here's why...
Morlaf, I think that you are approaching this from completely the wrong direction.
From what I have read, you don't want the Barbarian in your game. You want a barbaric character class, and in a way you kinda want something vaguely reminiscent of the Pathfinder Barbarian in your barbaric character class, but you don't want your barbarian to be a Barbarian.
- You don't want barbarians to have full BAB, like every normal Pathfinder martial class does (including the Barbarian)
- You don't want barbarians to have a rage ability even vaguely resembling the Barbarian's rage
- You don't want your barbarians to have Barbarian rage powers
- You want an enormous element of randomness to be thrown around when your barbarians do their thing, which goes totally against how the Barbarian functions. The Barbarian is reliable. Frighteningly so. It's one of the class's major strengths.
In fact, I am struggling to think of a single element of the Pathfinder Barbarian that actually contributes to what you want, besides maybe their fort save and a couple of skills.
Aside from Fort, none of their base mechanics are important. Lighting Reflex isn't particularly Barbariany, so reflex can be taken or left. Same for Will - either a high or low base Will save can fit the barbarian concept. We already established that you don't want BAB, and their hit dice could easily go down to d10, or even d8 if you supplement their HP with class abilities somehow. Proficiencies can also be dropped - why should an untrained savage be proficient with anything more sophisticated than a spear or a club. A lot of the skills could be dropped as well - in fact, I could make a pretty good case for dropping every single one of them except Survival and maybe Perception.
As for their class abilities...
Fast movement - take it or leave it
Rage, Rage powers and everything that improves Rage (read: the thing that makes barbarians Barbarians) - you want this gone in it's entirity
Trap Sense - barely relevent. Even the Invulnerable Rager swap can be taken or leaven
Uncanny Dodge - take it or leave it.
Damage Reduction - totally unimportant
You talk about modifying the Barbarian, but you are stripping out all the things that define the Barbarian, and almost every single thing left over could be tossed out. In fact, it probably should be tossed out.
This is why there are 3 pages of dialogue with minimal useful information given. This is why your requests for advice on how to change the Barbarian have been met with the response of "don't". This is why a few posters have been desperately trying to pry out what you are actually doing with the class so that they can address your barbarian as an entity in it's own right, instead of as a modification of another class that no longer resembles it in any useful sense.
This is why you have gotten little help in this entire thread. You ask for advice on how to tweak the Barbarian, but you do not want a Barbarian. What you want is not what you are asking for. You do not want to change the Barbarian. You want to write Barbarian at the top of some class sheets, and then proceed with an entirely unrelated class.
Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything inherently wrong with this...but...
...and this is important...
You need to explicitly state this, and unambiguously describe what it is you actually want to label a "Barbarian".
If you don't then you are going to be stuck with several pages of pointless back and forth between posters who have reasonably assumed that when you say you want a Barbarian, you mean that you actually want a Barbarian, not an entirely different beast with the same name.
My advice to you is to forget the Barbarian chassis. Create your own class from scratch. If you decide to ask for help again, clearly and unambiguously express what you want. Don't leave us having to pry out of you exactly what you are asking for help about. Don't repeat the events of this thread, where you ask about making up for lower BAB but you are actually gutting the Barbarian class in it's entirety. If you don't properly communicate your needs and the relevant information surrounding them to us, then you are highly unlikely to get any useful information. Just like this thread. Color me totally unsurprised.
There, there's my $0.02.
I'm going to ignore the back and forth that went on, and directly address this concept, cuz I think it's both interesting and doable.
A "wild surge" 3/4 BAB supernatural themed Barbarian class.
Let's see..
First, I like to look at the pillars: combat, exploration and interaction.
Combat: Gonna be it's biggest focus, I assume. Damage, defense, effects, control, etc.
Exploration: I can see some elements of movement and perception that would fit.
Interaction: Probably the lowest end, although causing fear effects and intimidation would still fit well. Perhaps even having a "natural" interaction element (controlling animals like Crocodile Dundee, etc).
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PRIMAL BARBARIAN
HD: 3/4 (d8)
Saves: Fort (High), Reflex (High), Will (Low)
Skills: 6 + Int -- Acrobatics, Climb, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (dungeoneering, nature), Perception, Ride, Sense Motive, Stealth, Survival, Swim.
The skill list gives them a chance to have decent interaction ability (knowledge, intimidate, sense motive), without needing too much extra in the abilities to boost it.
Class Abilities
Rage: Gained as normal for your campaign. I assume this comes with the bonus to Will saves (so they aren't totally deficient there), and various rage power options.
Body Conditioning: Gain an additional 3 hitpoints per class level (brings hitpoints back to d12 levels). Fold in Damage Reduction as levels progress.
Danger Sense: Uncanny Dodge and Trap Sense, as normal for the Barbarian.
Wild Surge: When in a rage, you gain a +1 attack bonus, plus another +1 per 5 BAB. This brings the attack bonus back to normal for a combat-based class, even though they don't necessarily qualify for feats or have the iteratives. You can drop this if you make the follow part very strong.
Also, when in a rage, you can spend from a second pool of points to activate additional super-powers. These powers are gained in packages; Blaze (fire based effects), Crush (destructive effects, like earthquake cracks or breaking armor/objects while making normal attacks), Dash (move quickly, more attacks, attack while moving, etc), Beast (gain animal attacks, wildshape, movement modes like flight or swim, summon/charm animals to fight for you), various things like this.
The random factor would be that each package has a set of different things you can do, and you'd roll randomly to see which effect you get. Do you breath a cone of fire that leaves an area of difficult terrain that causes damage per round; or do you light yourself on fire, causing added fire damage on melee attacks and others take fire damage from attacking you, etc.
A "Path of Reign" barbarian would instead pick specific sub-abilities, instead of the full package.. less abilities, but they get to do what they wanted.
Wild Talents: Whatever packages you choose in Wild Surge grant you "always on" effects, as long as you have Wild Surge points left.
Things like the Blaze package letting you ignore hot and cold temperatures, Crush giving hardness ignoring benefits, Dash giving you increased speed (gaining back Fast Movement) and no penalties for endurance running, Beast granting underwater movement/breathing or wild empathy.
This will primarily aid in the Exploration and possibly Interaction element of the class.
Since "exploring/interaction" is usually longer than "rounds per day", they need to be lower power, but always on, effects to have the appropriate impact to his aspect of the character.
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I think that having less attack bonus most of the time (if you add some bonus into raging), less iterative attacks and less access to combat related feats can be made up with a nice suite of abilities on a pool of points.
I think the above breakdown of a class would fit what you are looking for (lower starting BAB, still a combat class, suite of effects to boost them, and a random element to it).
I think adding an ability like Wild Talent (always on low level effects) is very important for two reasons: It makes the class feel like it has "something", even when not using rage/wild surge, and it bumps the class up a tier in range of "what it can contribute", outside of combat. Dare I say.. putting it in a tier 3 range of power (depending on how heavily you boost it).