Polymorph ranged form

[Condé]

Hello dear people from GitP.

We all know polymorph is good to get a nice, bulky and powerful melee form like Hydra, Bladerager Troll right from ECL7, and even more powerful ones at each level after that.
The Polymorph Handbook from Cru, on minmax forum is a really nice ressource. It might not be exhaustive but you have most of the better form you can get at every level until you get Shapechange.

The thing is... There is not many utility form and close to 0 form for a ranged character. Why? Maybe because nobody cares about ranged attack, or because if your form doesn't have a good way to deal ranged damage built-in you are pretty much screwed since archery and the like are quite feat-heavy and if you are able to polymorph, you probably do not have the luxury to put all your feats into ranged combat feats.

After saying that, there is alternative ways to get Polymorph. Thrall of Juiblex and Phylactery of Change for example, can let a fighter, warblade, or any other full Bab class get access to polymorph at will.

Having say that, now... What if you wanted to be adopt a form giving you ranged attacks? Even if you are a spellcaster, I often read people saying "At ECL7, you take the form of an hydra en murder everything". Yeah sure. BUT... You are a spellcaster, you still don't have that much HPs and your bab is garbage. Sure you still have 7 attacks and hydra's strength isn't bad but you are still probably going to miss a lot of attacks... Probably... But this isn't my point. My point is, you are at melee range. And even if you are going to be able to murder a lot of things, you still are a squishy wizard and probably still are vulnerable to a lot of things at ECL7.

Let's say you are a wizard or any other class that can get polymorph by Thrall of Juiblex, Phylactery of Change or any other way... And want to stay at range because you are a coward want to stay alive, because unlike people on the internet, you are actually playing the game, are subject to critical hit, missplay and don't know what kind of monsters ars going to be thrown at you... and don't want your character to freaking die.

SO... What form would you take to stay at range?

I have some interesting ones for you:

1. 5HD Runehound: Vile Spew is an (ex) attack, so you will have it if you turn into a runehound with polymorph. Interestingly enough, you get a ranged touch attack with a range of 100 feet dealing 1d6 acid damage PER HIT DICE. So, by the rules, it is a scaling attack. Which is nice. The 1d4 rounds between each shot is a bit lame but you still are a medium creature with a 10ft reach so... It is something.
   
2. 6HDManticore: 6 spikes dealing 1d8+2 damage at range as a standard action. And you are flying. And you speak common. Not bad. Sadly you only have 24 spikes/day, so you can only fire 4 times in a day... But you still have 2 claws and a bite so you are not completely useless after that.
   
3. 10HDArrow Demon: Since it is in its statblock, I guess you are able to use the 4 arms of the creature to fire with 2 bows. You can wield larger bows with no penalty and you threaten square adjacents to you with your bow. Pretty cool.
   

I know there is other ones but I don't really have much time to spend to look for every creature in existence... So I prefer asking professionnals and combine our efforts to make a little list of cool ranged forms you can take via polymorph.

[Anthrowhale]

Many giants have rock throwing. Hill/Stone/Fire giant are all in reach for Polymorph. Draconic Polymorph, Shapechange, and Reserves of Strength enables almost all of the other giants.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

One of the subsets of Beholder + Assume Supernatural Ability (Eye Rays) can get you at-will ray spells as ranged touch attacks, which sets off a low BAB and lowish Dex. Plus, at-will disintegrate has lots of utility uses, as well.

[Condé]

Any other?

I know ranged is probably going to be subpar in comparison to melee but I believe we can find at least decent forms.

(And yes, Beholder is more than decent, but I mean... It might be a bit too much. AND most people forget about the will check you have to make in order to use the abilites from the feat so... It is not that broken. I mean... Yes, it is broken. But it's not that fun to use since basically westing your turn on a will save is no fun to me.)
But stop talking about the beholder.

Any idea?

[Venger]

Nagas are good for their poison spitting.

[Saintheart]

4HD Gibbering Mouther has an Ex spittle attack - ranged touch attack, 1/round as a free action, Fort DC 18 vs. being blinded for 1d4 rounds.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Cloaker has close-ish range AoE [Ex] attacks. Doesn't require feat support or anything.