Help to improve action economy with Barbarian

[Bazaku Ambrosuis]

We are currently playing Rise of the Runelords in a party of five: a fighter, wizard, a barbarian, an alchemist and me, the cleric.
So far we have been doing a fairly simple strategy but it gives us good results. Whenever we fight inside a room we stay in the door, the hallway or the narrower place so that one or both tanks (depends if the place has one or two squares) the alchemist is placed behind the dwarf fighter so that Can shoot arrows without problems, I behind the barbarian so I give support with spells or channels and the wizard from behind cast spells.
The problem is that there are times when the corridors are too narrow (one box) and while the fighter stays ahead doing damage and the others we help with spells, bombs, etc. The poor barbarian is left behind, unable to shoot arrows having many allies covering his vision so that many times he must skip his turn.
Obviously sometimes we let the barbarian go ahead leaving the fighter behind but being taller dulls a little more than the dwarf.
In general the group relies on me to strategize, tell them how to position ourselves as a group or what items to buy when we have lots of gold available, I try to make everyone have fun and that everyone plays an important role in our party.
What I'm looking for is something to suggest to the barbarian when he stays behind, without wasting his actions and without being bored. The only thing that occurred to me is a wand but... without having a vision of the enemy, what spell could be that he can use over and over again without losing any usefulness?

[John Scala]

This might be oversimplistic, but maybe have the Barbarian invest in a backup reach weapon for these types of scenarios?

[Bazaku Ambrosuis]

Yes, but beeing in narrow places and with two allys in front, dm dont let us.
Saw the ring of Transposition, this is a bit expensive but may work. Any other item, spell o feat (already readed the teamwork one but is only with 5ft squares and hes usally far than that)

[Gray Warden]

Spring Attack is what you need. However I would suggest the Fighter to take it, given he gets lots of feats to spend.

[avr]

Maybe the barbarian could try intimidating? There are some barbarian rage powers which work with that and I find it hard to believe his UMD skill is higher than his intimidate.

[Rogar Valertis]

Well, dwarves have good synergy with reach weapons: give him a dwarven longhammer or a Dorn Dregar, feats like cleave and the Goblin Cleaver feat tree and you have a perfectly viable fighter capable of staying behind the barbarian, threaten and cause a lot of damage.
If the dwarf takes a Dorn Dregar he should at least get the Darting Viper feat and maybe the Dorn Dregar Master feat (but it requires Dex15).

[quillblade]

IIRC, all creatures grant soft cover (+4) to both allies and enemies, regardless of their feet-and-inches size. It is just as hard to hit enemies in front of the dwarf as it would be the barbarian. Having the dwarf in the front line should not, mechanically-speaking, be any more of an advantage than having the barbarian there. So just alternate who goes first each time ;)

The number of allies or enemies in front of you doesn't normally prevent you from making ranged attacks. Reach attacks have, naturally, more problems if you cannot reach your enemies. Still, a 5ft corridor is your standard fighting space. Enemies won't have Total Cover unless they are hiding around a corner or behind a piece of architecture that prevents line of effect, i.e. a "solid barrier". Creatures only provide soft cover against attacks. You may want to talk to your DM and get them to check the cover rules (page 195-196 of the CRB) or this link here.

If he is operating on a House Rule, I would still recommend talking to him about it, because relaxing that House Rule may help make the game more fun for everyone.

At which point, unless the barbarian dumped Dexterity, he should still be able to use a bow or have some throwing axes on hand. He doesn't have the feats, but it will allow him to be engaged in times when his melee options are limited. While Precise Shot is a nice feat to have, if the feat tax is too high, it's important to note that you only take the –4 penalty if your target is engaged in melee with a friendly creature. If you aim at the guy standing behind the enemy engaged in melee with your friend, no penalty. Also, no penalty to hit creatures attacking with reach, as long as they are standing at least 10ft away from any friendly. Both rules from page 184 of the CRB.

Alternatively, give the barbarian a reach weapon and make the archer stand behind the barbarian instead. It shouldn't affect the archer's ability to shoot things, since he is already suffering soft cover from the dwarf.

NB: If there is actually a rule that limits the number of creatures you can shoot through, someone please link me to it, because it would render standard warfare tactics (archers behind the front lines/shield wall) impossible to portray.

[Dastis]

Undersized mount or potions/wand of reduce person. Ride the fighter into combat

[MageHunter]

Grab a familiar with Eldritch Heritage?

[Panchio]

Bazaku Ambrosuis wrote:

What I'm looking for is something to suggest to the barbarian when he stays behind, without wasting his actions and without being bored. The only thing that occurred to me is a wand but... without having a vision of the enemy, what spell could be that he can use over and over again without losing any usefulness?

I suggest the Antagonize feat. Even if he is really behind (30 ft away), he can still take out one foe and make him attack him, making his tanking role and swifting the tank role for the fighter.

The sweet thing about the Antagonizing from behid is that you ll make the foe spend his turn with an useless action (for instance, shooting at you with his bow against 3 creatures providing you cover) OR, even better, making the foe vulnerable for taking hits.

For instance, if the target had a meelee weapon in hand, he'd have to drawn a ranged weapon to attack you, what would provoke atks of opportunity from the fighter.