Archery in this game kind of sucks.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Gnome

In my games, players put a high premium on the safety of their own character. An archer may not have the DPS of a melee fighter, but in a "joined melee," the archer can often stay out of harm's way and still have some effect. The ability to participate in a battle, however feebly, without putting yourself at risk, is highly significant, and a big reason archery is so valuable. You might not need to wear heavy armor or learn to wield a shield if you can just Move and Attack, etc. And if your party is smart and uses good tactics, they can delay before entering melee in order to give you more opportunities to strike (unless the enemy has archers as well of course...).

Written to that already:

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

This balance only works, though, if either you don't care about the fate of your melee allies or your melee allies don't rush in to melee while you're doing the shooting.

Once the melee is on, you being out of it makes you safe but does so by distributing the threat you'd draw to all your friends with a premium on top.

I agree that if you want to contribute while keeping your own PC in less danger at the expense of the other party members playing an archer will do that. I find that objective concerning, personally. Unless you run an expendable NPC front line I guess?