How can you improve your skill checks in Starfinder?

Question

I am currently in the campaign with two other players. Our party consists of an Operative, a Soldier, and a Solarian. Due to the way skill points are distributed in this game, the Operative is obviously significantly better and more proficient with various skills.

However, during sessions often times it turns out that even for the skills that the Solarion and the Soldier invest heavily in, the Operative can just invest marginally and be on par or even more proficient. This leads to the other characters feeling like they have little to no usefulness outside of combat or roleplay.

Obviously, there is a group dynamic aspect to this issue, but I am not looking for answers regarding that, we got that covered.

What I would like to know is, is there any equipment or other options for the Soldier and Solarian to boost or improve the skills they are interested in? I would prefer if the solutions were things that do not depend on the character class progression or require feats.

Answer 1

Operatives and Envoys are skill monkey classes, so they are expected to skilled pretty well in all sorts of things. That being said, one jack of all trades might not be sufficient for a successful party. Having a single awesome stealth operative isn't much use if a hulking Vesk in heavy armor is making a ruckus and trying to sneak at the same time. Maybe there are multiple terminals to be hacked simultaneously, so one hacker just can't cut it.

For raw ability score boosts, consider personal upgrades. A +2/+4/+6 increase in key ability score helps with skill checks, and is useful in combat too.

There are custom items that provide bonuses for a related skill. When suggesting getting one, be prepared to explain how the item granting skill bonus makes sense. An example would be magitech nimble soles that provide +2/+4 for acrobatics checks.