Brave short bows are the real way to go 
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imma say it extra loud for y’all in the back
JUST GIVE THEM STATS
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Ok but to give an actual answer, only option 3 is valid here.
I mean you can have 2-3 bows and close counter or whatever, but that’s not a balance change and it won’t automatically make archers epic.
That’s definitely something you have to make your game around from the start, if archers bad is the reasoning behind making this decision then you’re making it for the wrong reasons.
Pandan already mentioned making chip valuable via enemies that can do real damage at 1 rng and I second it, honestly that’s the only thing I can say that applies universally beyond “give them stats”. Incentivize using them.
And for the love of god don’t be IS, give them the stats to do the job. What those numbers should be, I can’t tell you but please. also yea gba bow stats are mega stank.
TLDR do whatever you want but please make their stats like existent so they can do the thing you want them to do, whatever it is.
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If you find making 2 range bows stronger makes using javelins and hand axes more of a requirement, then I think you can imagine what it’s like with 2-3 range bows, were now not even those will do the trick. Rather if you don’t wanna eat a hit and be able to actually counter your only options are your own archers/bow wielders. Which is like twice as annoying as the handaxe/javelin thing might be, I can tell you that.
But to answer the main question, just giving archers stats, and making bows less crappy, as well as making enemies threatening enough that being able to chip from afar from valuable is the best way to go because it gives them a real purpose and doesn’t create the annoying situations 2-3 range bows standard does.
Also 1-2 range bows are cringe and bad
wolt
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Archers need stats that don’t suck. However, good stats alone don’t make archers with 2-locked bows good compared to any other class.
2-3 range bows (or perhaps rather +1 bow range for archer classes only, so warriors don’t become Snipers But Better again) is the only solution that gives archers a niche that can’t be filled by any idiot with a tome, handaxe, and/or javelin. (Flier effective damage is not sufficient… unless the player faces a lot of fliers, which is a fairly obnoxious design in itself.)
Giving bows 1-2 range does make archers stronger, but it doesn’t make them unique. Every other class with offensive capabilities can do 1-2 range in some way.
But yeah, sure, aside from that,
just Wolt.
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What is a thief without locks to pick or items to steal? A myrmidon with 1 extra mov
Analogy aside, yeah. The usefulness of an archer more often than not depends on the game you design them for. Personally I like a lot of the many iterations of archers, but “buffing” them is pretty much context sensitive, as you implied. Like what are your range options during their joining, or how many enemy fliers are present, or does the terrain have cliffs or walls most other units can’t access?
It doesn’t help that almost all (early-ish) vanilla bow users in gbafe are fairly mid to poor performance-wise, either. Then there’s also the existence of 1-2 range axes and lances at a crucial time for an archer’s growth.
Personally I’d like to see weapons like the poison bow or the hunter’s bow from Fates become more present. Just something to shake up the archer arsenal a little and to give more incentive for early investment. All it takes to make a weapon special is give it an attribute not commonly present elsewhere. Though this is moreso getting into how I’d make them more interesting rather than “better”.
An archer’s purpose is being, primarily, a unit built for killing fliers, as well as having a weapon line made specifically for hitting targets for fair physical* damage from a safe distance.
(Yes shining bow and its several cousins exist)
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I made archers only 2-3 range (there are two other T1 bow using classes) and I also increased their stats in my hack. In early game they are a extremely tough to deal with them. Mid-game they can easily pick off units if you aren’t careful. Since they can attack from 3 range, its hard to counter them.
Essentially, both higher stats and 2-3 range isn’t really what you want. They will be hard to kill.
A) Nerf Hand Axe and Javelin type weapons - tank their Mt or Hit, prevent or make it harder for them to double, and/or limit them to Range 2.
B) Give magic variable ranges to prevent them from filling the void as supreme “always 1-2 range” options
C) I don’t know if much needs to be done for enemy archers or making other enemies FE12-levels of offensively tuned (I would rather not relegate player Archers to be first hit chip damage and leaving weakened enemies to be finished off mainly by other units) but it would do well to make player archers not a joke statistically so that they can actually meaningfully contribute on par with other units.
C2) Personally, in my planning, I gave Archers a +1 Max Range skill as long as their Str is more than the Wt of the Bow (plus a set amount) they are using, Hunters a Critical skill, and Nomads an Armsthrift-like skill (salvaging arrows or other improvised ones). No idea how it will play out in practice, but that’s my plan separate from the above.
-make the game more player phase oriented
-having dangerous/more fliers ennemies
-more wall/inside maps
-having effective types bow(mage/mount effective)
-buffing sure shot/snipers skills
-buffing archers stats
-better bows
-nerfing 1-2 non-bows options
-more ballistaes
Common 2-3 range bows are pretty bad design imo. Having foes hitting you from 3 range feels horrible . I feel like hitting from 3 range in general is pretty unfire emblem gba. The longbow is an expection since it’s frail,weak and rare.
1 Range short bows are not my cup of tea because it’s strips what’s unique about archers.
My favourite Gba archer is Igrene from a reverse recruitement run. She replaced Zelot and acted as sniper Oyfey. She came in real clutch against the wyverns. Her ability to chip/one round at will was great but her innate weaknesses as a sniper made her quite balanced. She was a joy to play with
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I give them a short sword.
There’s not really an option for this but here I go,
Make bows unique, give each of them varying ranges for example.
Smh no 1-3 range option 
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Pfft, that’s so last year. 3-10 Range Longbow men.
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Kinda late to this, but stronger Archers (not the bows themselves) tend to do enough work, but can be further helped by making bows themselves have better stats/easier time finding the best targets as Pandan said.
A strong Archer who can do consistent chip damage, or even one who can consistently kill, will be an archer that is used frequently to do the job they’re supposed to. Which is why I fully support any project that has an archer especially female archers with a strong start and at least average to above average midgame. Falling off late when you have PALADIN MCGEE in the party is inevitable unless bows gets like 2-3 rangers or snipers getting a mount, but by that point they’ve done the chip job pretty well, or, if lucky, can kill themselves.
basically just give me neimi but better bases and we gucci no like literally put her in a new project
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I think that 2-3 range bows can work really well, you just need to design your maps around the mechanic and make sure to not overload the player with too many archers to slowly build the link between your hack and 2-3 range archers. Ideally, I’d recommend making custom map sprites exclusive to your hack to further build the connection between the hack and the 2-3 range archers.
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Is chapter 2 prepromote Rebecca acceptable
I’ll also have Neimi but she has her base stats
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Thanks for all the replies and votes! Lots of great feedback. I think the main points Ive taken from all this are:
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More meaningful targets for bows. - I think many hacks handle this well by making tougher enemies and making combat more player phase oriented. I also completely agree with the more flier comments.
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Making bows deadlier as a weapon. - Increasing mt of bows seems like a sensible way to compensate for the drawback of having little to no enemy phase.
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Increasing variety of bow types aside from basic/killer/brave. - Add new bows which have effective damage against other enemy types or have other effects.
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Well the only counter I have found for bows in most FEs is tome users and 1-2 range weapons, and since tome users and 1-2 range weapons can be common in FE games I think 2-3 range is the best for bows, especially since they can’t counter up close.
Also it just seems fair to me: if tomes and throwable weapons can have 2 tiles worth of range it makes sense to give bows that too IMO.
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I personally like 2-3 range archers quite a bit. It makes so much sense to me. Archers should be the undisputed masters of ranged combat, and because they have little to no enemy phase, they better kick ass in player phase. They should have the edge against 1-2 physical weapons and mages, but be defenseless on melee. Stationary bosses, as said by someone on the thread “Archers and How to Make them Worth Using”, should be reduced in number so 3 range cheese is minimized; or alternatively, give stationary bosses 1-3 range weapons (just not on generics like Project Ember does, that gets very annoying). Or increase the defense boost of gates and thrones at the cost of avoid. And about the argument that enemy archers get annoying because you can only counter them with your own archers and therefore 2-3 range is bad - just rush the enemy archers. In vanilla they’re a mild annoyance at best and non-threats at worst, but with this change they become primary targets to take out as soon as possible.
I also love the idea mentioned earlier about more specialized bows that are effective against non-fliers classes like armors and horses. If 2-3 range was not implemented then I would include a mage-piercing bow to tip the scales. We really could use more bows in FE.
I also understand the argument for creating a demand for archers through hard-hitting enemies or flier abundance. I support the former, but the latter may get annoying, as in Selena’s chapter in Sacred Stones or The Frozen River in Binding Blade.
Finally, give the ballistas some love. We should have more usable ballistas in maps. Those can only be operated by archers and give a solid reason to deploy them. I’m not saying every map should have them, but like, 1/3 of the maps could have two or three ballistas near where the player starts, or on the center of the map, which enemy archers could rush towards.
5 Likes