[Stormcrow]

I am going to suggest something that will probably be unpopular.

Maybe the problem is not that archers are uninteresting, but rather that players have internalized an uninteresting option as a core concept. RPGs, and especially computer games, have popularized the idea of someone who causes damage at a distance and whom the enemies can't reach.

I know cinematic games are all the rage nowadays, and the archer-in-a-melee conceit is highly cinematic. But consider that, realistically, archers are only for support; they're not the main action. Maybe players who want more to do should simply not be archers.