1. Change characters so the character who has better skill will lead. I don't know why the game did this, but it put my Gith Ranger as the dialogue lead with Shadowheart and he had no Persuade skill. My Cleric was who I used to trigger the dialogue, so he SHOULD have chatted with her instead, but that isn't the point. I should be able to pick who in the party I wanted to talk to her so I could use Persuade from my Cleric.
I believe that in some interview Swen was talking about working on something, that will allow us switch characters during conversations ... if that will be implemented, none of this problem will matter. :P I certainly hope they implement it soon.
