Assuming that we're going to be using the D&D rules for this D&D game, there's little we can do with the mechanics of Skill Checks, they are what they are. I'd love more gear and/or consumables that could temporarily boost your odds but I think that this very much hits the nail about Skill Checks:
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Because of those facts skill challenges have to be handled differently in video games than they are in pen and paper. I think that currently BG3 has made a few major mistakes in its implementation.
- The current failures are uninteresting. Failing an arcana check doesn't mean something goes wrong in a cool way, it means the game goes "neener, neener, you don't know that!" even if you're a highly intelligent wizard. This feels unfair, fails to reinforce character choices and, most importantly, is very boring. It makes people reload saves to get the interesting outcome instead.
- Checks are infrequent. If you want to have highly random outcomes then the only way to reinforce character concepts out is to have a lot of checks so the statistical advantage the intelligent wizard has on arcana checks is actually felt. BG3 has very few checks, which means that the random nature really stands out. It also makes reloading comparably easy. Contrast with for instance Disco Elysium, which has a similarly random system but has a constant barrage of checks so your character concept is still always evident.
- The differences in outcome are often both very significant and very random. As a result I don't feel like my character choices matter much, since I have little choice in how a situation resolves. The "dice luck" and "load savegame" powers available to everyone are both far more powerful than the "nature proficiency" power I actually picked.
