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Sorry. Hate to tell you, but he's already dead.
I would have probably gone for a different feat than weapon focus, but I don't see any reason your ranger shouldn't be survivable. He'll have a +3 dex AC modifier and a +2 to his arrow damage with a str adjusted bow.
The rest is up to you and your group, but I've seen far less survivable characters.
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Get him a greatsword when you can. 2d6+3 damage is nice at low levels. You may not want to do melee, but sometimes you don't have a choice.
If you're planning on switching between melee and ranged attacks often I would hold off on weapon focus.
What scenario was it?
Get point blank shot. You can rebuild at first level.
Then get the dm to run first steps or something. There's a HUGE difference between first and second level, and almost as big a difference between your first adventure and your second one.
Also consider a new DM. If they whipped a bunch of first levels twice they're doing it wrong.
Basically what bignorsewolf said, even the best designed adventures can be ruined by inept or vindictive gms. Dont let a couple bad experiences sour you to what many people enjoy.
If you lack gms in your area and its a "this guy or nothing" kind of thing, dont forget this is the computer age. Finding games online, either pbp or over a virtual tabletop is fairly easy.
I run my local game and finally found a live online game in which i get to pc. Let me tell you its amazingly fun and im glad every week that i found it.
Keep at it you'll find the right group and be glad you did.
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Smart play beats smart builds everyday. As long as you do not run into a group of weak players you should be fine.
You do not need magic weapons. You can still grapple, pin and tie up something. If this is the quest I am thinking it is there are more fearsome monsters then those at the door.
If you are new to PFS find some Vets and steal their tactics. learn and grow.
IF you get owned by that then the higher levels mods will kill them easier if they do nto have means right now and thus cause othr people to die.
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It doesn't sound like the problem is PFS.
If this was Mists of the Mwangi at 1-2, the fights are not overpowered or unbalanced, although having a balanced group can help. Ask your local PFS coordinator to run First Steps for you guys so you can come at adventures like that as level 2 adventurers, and you might have an easier time of it.
I've played Mists, and either your GMs are out to kill you (possible), or you guys just had bad luck.
Have someone go full defense and walk past the monster and provke. There the AoO is used up. Have the rest of you gang tackle it. The combat manuevers are very powerful. Learn to exploit them.
The monster squeezing through a door it is capable of doing this. If you position yourself right you can make it much harder by having to jump around you what I think the DM did. I am not sure. I was not there so I can not fully defend either position.
You could have a cehating DM. I have had those before.
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It wasn't bad luck. We scored at least 3 critical hits, I think 4. One of them was with a bow. All were for over 20 damage.It doesn't sound like the problem is PFS.
If this was Mists of the Mwangi at 1-2, the fights are not overpowered or unbalanced, although having a balanced group can help. Ask your local PFS coordinator to run First Steps for you guys so you can come at adventures like that as level 2 adventurers, and you might have an easier time of it.
I've played Mists, and either your GMs are out to kill you (possible), or you guys just had bad luck.
Very well, you guys got crits. What was the group makeup? Did you have people with wands of cure light wounds so you could go into every fight fresh? Was everyone working together?
You had some deaths; did the GM seem happy or upset when they happened?
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Well then I repeat: you had bad luck. It's also going to be difficult for four fresh level one characters to make it out of an adventure unscathed.
If you had fun, go back. If you didn't have fun, it's not the end of the world. I happen to enjoy PFS very much, and have never had an experience like the one you're reporting.
Well little things add up. In my PFS group there are 3 guys that with any character seem to make adventures easy. Basic every time use strategies are good to know, but sometimes a powerfull party leader saving a hit here, not getting the group surprised there, and etc can add up to huge things. Plus one character doing a silly move and getting downed can put huge preasure on the group.
I think there is luck involved but it is calculated luck. Playing wisley and taking risks when the luck is in your favor can behuge, and vise versa. If the group was downed just for "luck", I would say a few poor choices led the down fall.
You don't know it, but a monk (or any char) with deflect arrows will really ruin your day.
Funny how weak low level archery builds can be.
In 3.0, I played a low level ranger (1-3) with PBS and Rapid Shot (plus free Ambidexterity AND Two-Weapon Fighting), and it was very very effective. A body can only Deflect Arrows once per round, so with Rapid Shot, you get a second shot of hitting them!
I've been on the other end of a no experience group before. 5 IIRC 1st level no xp PCs running through first steps part 1. Near TPK on the final encounter (no deaths, but 3 character were unconscious)
Nearly all of their problems had to do with terrible builds + terrible tactics. A ranged touch spell wizard with 12 dex, who primarily used a long spear. A druid with domain instead of animal companion (actually pretty well played and built, but lack of competent party members hurt this choice). A summoner who had one of the worst eidolon builds I've seen and mostly just summoned ponies. A bard who primarily used nets and tripped with a whip (party MVP and primary damage dealer/healer/face/controller, hell, she carried the party through the whole thing). And a party anchor that I don't even recall what it was it was so badly played (I think it was a healing focused cleric, but I don't remember too well).
Highlight was when the wizard tried to cast a ray at a prone in combat on the other side of a pony enemy. Now total those negative modifiers up. Now add the whopping +1 dex mod... Anytime you need the "20 always hits" rule to be able to hit with a TOUCH attack means your probably doing it wrong.
So that being said, PFS is a cakewalk at low levels for players with decent rules mastery. My first few adventures saw my level 1 dwarven cleric playing up every game. Highlight was tanking an enlarged gnoll in a confined space so the barbarian who was our primary damage dealer could withdraw to heal (he was in the rage ends die with only 2 rounds of rage left, got to love low AC barbarian builds). Then getting a crit with a heavy pick killing the boss handily (12+4d6 damage is pretty brutal).