Don't confuse bows and crossbows - they use totally different skills (other than the arrow skills).
I never did as well with either as with melee. Melee weapons can be sharpened a whole bunch of times and become quite powerful - I never had a bow or xbow that came anywhere near a highly sharpened melee weapon in terms of doing high damage.
Obviously they have the advantage of doing damage at a distance, but so do the magic spells of course and magic can paralyze the enemy - so with money and potions plentiful in this version of BD I see no benefit to play an archer other than for role-playing purposes, to do something different or just to enjoy that style of play. Quite a change 'cause I lived and died by the bow with my Divine Divinity warriors for the first half of the game.
