Would making bows 2-3 make them better?
That doesn't really fix their main issue, namely that they're still useless during the enemy phase even if they have 2-3 range. Fates (and Awakening I guess I dunno I stopped playing Awakening after a few chapters so not sure how pair up works in that game) buffed bow users a bit by letting them act during enemy phase through attack stance. But it's not that much of a buff because in Fates defensive stance is better than attack stance in 90% of cases.
There are examples of good bow users in the series, but as far as I can remember, they're good units despite them wielding bows, not because of them wielding bows.
What could make bows better, then? Bow users, like most damage-dealing units, can only kill one enemy during the player phase. However, bow users, unlike most other units, do no damage during the enemy phase. FE could make bow users have 1 range bows (they already exist) so that they can act in enemy phase. In my opinion, though, that kind of takes away what makes bow users special. Instead, FE could try to make bow users do more in the player phase. Maybe let them attack two enemies or give them crowd control abilities or something. It's not an easy question to answer, but I've been experimenting a bit.
