Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described for selecting different uplink transmission parameters for transmission or retransmission of a random access message. A user equipment (UE) may transmit or retransmit a random access message such as a layer 2 or layer 3 (L2/L3) message to a base station during a random access procedure. The UE may select a transmission beam, uplink resource or transmission power for the transmission of the L2/L3 message that differ from those used for transmission of a previous random access message. The selection may be based on path loss associated with synchronization signals or previous transmissions. The selection may also be based on a maximum number of retransmissions.