I'm GMing for a group where everyone (including myself) is entirely new to Pathfinder. We had our session 0 recently followed by a quick practice combat. The thing I noticed from that, plus a little theory crafting of building a low level character myself, is that people using ranged combat felt very underwhelming compared to melee weapon users.
- They couldn't add any modifier to damage
- They had far fewer feats upgrading them (particularly compared to dual wielders)
- They had fewer "third action" options
- Less ability to help out allies with things like flanking
- Can't opportunity attack
Sure, for all that they have the advantage of being safer from getting damaged. But it didn't really feel like a worthwhile trade-off. Does this get better as you level up? Is it just something caused by inexperience? What options can/should you take to make ranged combat feel more interesting and valuable?
For context, my party had a rogue and a ranged fighter as ranged users, as well as a barbarian and a magus in melee, and a druid and sorcerer as casters.
You are definitely trading damage for both the protection of range as well as the reduced action requirements by not having to move.
The deadly traits on bows should help make up the difference and picking something like composite short bow will give you some of strength mod towards damage of you have one.
Most classes do have feats that improve ranged options as well, fighter in particular has great options like point blank shot and double shot. At higher levels you can take one of the strongest feats in the game Debilitating shot.
Rogue is a bit tricker because at range you give up a few easy ways to get enemies off guard (flanking and feinting). You can go thief racket though to pickup that extra dex damage and then maybe invest in intimidate and take Dread Striker?
Ah yeah interesting. So far I had only really looked at 1st and 2nd level feats, which were quite disappointing. It does seem like more options open up at higher levels (without needing to get too much higher).
How does that work? I thought thief racket only allowed dex in place of str for melee strikes' damage bonus.
Note that what @ErsatzEidolon told you only works if rogue is your base class. The DEX mod damage bonus is only available in the class, not the archetype.
Ah you are right, thief racket is melee only. No throwing daggers or anything. I haven't looked at that racket in a bit and remembered wrong.
For a rogue it looks like picking up a dedication like Ranger would be the best way to get useful ranged abilities.