[SuedodeuS]

Although archery, particularly in Low Tech levels, is essentially a lifetime investment, archers are quite rarely just archers. They are likely to have their non-war skills more advanced than the dedicated melee warriors, making them useful in non-combat situations. Notably, really good archers are likely to have keen eyesight, and decent sneaking skills are hardly inappropriate. Thus, archer characters can make for good scouts, trackers, and hunters, although in situations where they need to find hidden foes they are likely to be better served using a melee weapon (a good environment for hiding means close quarters combat is likely, and if they spot an enemy and have time to line up a shot, that probably means the enemy doesn't know they've been spotted and the archer similarly has time to Ready the bow first). In a setting where "adventurers" are common, an archer is also likely to make it a point to know a good deal about tactics. And, of course, archers might have some sort of "day job," the skills of which could transfer to the adventurers in unforeseen ways.

For combat, ambush from height is, of course, ideal. Failing that, a nice plain (preferably with hills to slow the enemy advance) can mean the archer drops a few of the enemies by the time they get into melee with the rest of the party, greatly skewing things in your favor. If you yourself are ambushed, archers in your party will likely be able to respond before the rest - an ambush generally means the enemy engages from a hard-to-reach location, so the ability to reach out and touch someone from range is a great boon to the victims. In potential CQB situations, like exploring a dungeon or engaging in some urban warfare, an archer may be better served leaving his or her bow behind and using a backup melee weapon (shortswords work nicely for this) and maybe a light shield (for the DB). Alternatively, he or she can simply make certain his/her melee weapon is easily within reach for drawing it. If he/she is ever engaged from too close of a distance, dropping the arrow and quickly drawing the sword (keep hold of the bow, you don't want to lose/break it) can work. Indeed, it might be a legitimate option to keep one's hand on the sword hilt at all times, carrying the bow in the off-hand (as that's how you hold it anyway). This gives a sizable (+4 IIRC) bonus to Fast-Draw for the sword, and really only burns a couple of seconds to draw and nock an arrow (as compared to carrying the bow in a Ready state) in case one does get into a situation that calls for some archery.