Some of the comments I've seen pro and con (paraphrased of course and probably some bit out of context and debatable):
Pro-
It is not against the rules as written.
Pathfinder, themselves, have stated it is 100% legal as long as the paladin stays within their code.
In PF rules archery, in and of itself, is slightly superior to other ways of dealing out non-spell damage.
Con-
*pulling from IRL historical doctrine via the Holy Roman Church* It is illegal for knights to use un-honorable weapons like bows or crossbows.
Paladins are supposed to be plate mailed tanks.
In past editions of the game (Dungeons and Dragons) it is against paladin code to use ranged weapons.
Now, first, I am no authority. I'm just a hobbiest. I play PF for the fun and social aspects of it. "Fun" to me is setting out a goal in game and achieving it - and this usually consists of "something is threatening X, we go out and find it and make it stop, get stuff for that". On top of all that you get to be somebody all heroic and shit and explore that personality and maybe even plagiarize something from a movie you saw that was cool. On top of all that you get to improve as far as you succeed. On top of all of that you get to shoot lightning bolts and jump on fantastical monster heads and hit them with magical weapons named "Dire-Smasher" and shit like that. If you are lucky this goes on for longer than a year and you build a story that is fun to be a part of.
I am in no position to say anyone is right or wrong and me doing so would be useless as my typed words here and what comes out of my mouth has no effect on how others chose to play a game.
We played another session of Brandon's (the GM) Rise of the Runelords yesterday and we got to the boss fight of the session. It was against some undead/revenant/corrupted dude that was evil and crazy. He had minions too, more undead ghouls or something like that. We were at full strength as we rested right before,though there is only 3 of us in the party (and if you did not know encounters are hardwired in the assumption there are 4 PCs). The fight was tough, the BBEG focusing his attacks on our druid played by my wife Gretchen. The wizard (Jason) laid down some battlefield control which took some of the bear of the mooks off of us. Balder, my archer paladin, put some arrows down range. We saw what could be done.
Balder clicked all the columns for this one. Smite Evil, Divine Bond (on bow), Deadly Aim feat, Rapid Shot feat, Point Blank feat, and some other stuff. He was rocking a full attack of +12/+12/+12/+7 and doing 1d8+20 damage per arrow. In 4 rounds of combat he shot 12 arrows - hitting with 4 (some crap die rolls) and netting a total of 110 points of damage as per what Brandon the GM tracked. Due to Smite Evil and the BBEG being undead the first arrow that hit did 1d8+24. Hitting with less than half the shots taken he still put down 110 damage. Balder did get bit by one of the mooks taking 6 points of damage, no need for some fortitude save as he is immune to disease.
The BBEG went down and the mooks were handeled with Balder's positive energy burst he can do. He then healed everyone with lay on hands and cured the diseases they picked up with his mercy ability. Because of his ranged ability he could stay out of melee for the most part and still put some damage down.
Some would say "Wow, so broken!!" and to that I say, "That's what Balder was designed to do." Let's take a good look at it all.
1) Balder is a paladin, a champion of good and justice. He is hardwired to defeat evil things in combat. This target was not only evil, it was undead too.
2) The whole group made tactical decisions for the best tactical situation - up to and including leaving Balder with line of sight on his target (aka positioning).
3) We made sure we also had proper illumination so as to get rid of any concealment chances due to not being able to see clearly.
4) Some buffs were up for us.
5) Some debuffs on the baddies were also up.
If the BBEG were not an undead evil guy that murdered people things would've been different. I did some math to prove that point. If the target was a rabid dire bear 75 feet away Balder would be doing considerably less damage. 2 arrows at 1d8+5 at best. That's if they were able to get the rabid dire bear out into the open, in the day, no rain or fog. Balder is not helpless mind you but he's not as bad-assed as he is against a demon.
Change that rabid dire bear into a gang of chaotic neutral humans and elves that have taken to banditry? We're looking at a whole different philosophy of contact for Balder there. Afterall, he's a lawful good paladin, he can't just go kill these bandits. At least, that's how I'd play him.
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