Archery not needed? (in General)

I have a 3 caster, 1 tank team who has a bow "for the heck of it". I've been away since about April 2006, so I know there's been various changes/etc. However I don't have archery trained on my tank at all, yet his ranged attacks never miss when I fight. As I read the help pages, it seems like a 0 archery should be dropping me down to like 20% chance to hit before adding bonuses for weapon and DX? So, I'm confused.

Thanks for any clarification!

Dex difference could be the kicker. Read up on Dex vs Dex in the wiki.

Yes, thank you. One of my favorites has much higher DX than me, and him I always miss. Plugging the formula into Google, it seems if your DX is about 10x the target, then you're at about 100% DX chance to hit. Since my tank is the one shooting, and often the front row are casters with no DX, I'm at like 900x higher DX than they have.

Yay for easy to hit front line meat shields.

If memory serves right (might not be quite that way, but close enough), with maxed DX advantage, maxed archery, and a more than +200 weapon (or a ToE to add to that much on top of the plus you might already have) and no enemy evasion or such things, you could be hitting 5 times per round (4 always and the 5th sometimes, how often depending on the weapon plus).

P.S. That's assuming you have an ELBow, other bows have a slightly lower total accuracy, and crossbows don't benefit from archery at all. No idea about the Chakram though.