This is my first Gothic 1 playthrough and I opted not to raise Dexterity because one of the walkthroughs I found said that archery was not needed to win the game.(!!!) I can raise my Dexterity up to 20 using two rings I had found or bought (I don't remember which). I have a number of bows and crossbows of various types in my inventory, along with a large number of arrows and bolts, although I can't raise my Dexterity enough to use a crossbow.

I'm in the Orc Temple, at the point where I'm supposed to hit the targets with a bow and arrows. But no matter how many times I try, I cannot hit the target at all; the arrows appear to ge hitting the wall a few feet below the target.

I found some posts about how to aim a bow (use the mouse and left mouse button?), but I cannot see where to aim. If I use the mouse I can move the "camera" around to position the center of the third-person point of view on the target, but the back of my character's head and body are in the way so I can't tell if I'm actually aiming at the target or see where my arrows are hitting when I shoot.

I found an old post in this forum which mentioned using a cheat to just walk through the closed gates-- something I'd prefer to not have to do-- but the page which that post is linking to cannot be found.

Does anyone have any tips on how to aim the bow at the target, or how to use the cheat mode if all else fails? I was really getting into this game, despite several bugs and glitches I'd run into at various points, but this us making me want to just rage-quit the game and write it off as a "could have been great" POS.

It's been a while since I played Gothic, but try this: when you are aiming with a ranged weapon you need to lock the target the same way as you lock with melee weapon. However when locked you can press the left/right arrow keys on the keyboard and switch between the targets. Try to see if your character is changing the targets and fire then at one of them. Some of the switches might be blocked by a wall, depending on the angle from which you are shooting at them.

Maybe, just to get used to how the ranged combat works, try attacking a group of enemies (from some save position, if possible so the enemies can't get to you). Then you can test how switching targets is working.