Hello there
Don't worry too much of missing out content, the game is made in a way that sometimes not having a detect thoughts or not succeeding a very difficult persuasion/intimidation leads to a more interesting outcome. Anyway, if you like to have a glimpse at every dialogue choice possible, there are several options available to all classes and races:
- potions of animal speaking
- scrolls of detect thoughts
- several ways to speak with the dead
Also for your request, I can recommend playing a class that can cast Disguise Self to pretend to be any possible race in any given circumstance.
Those are wizards (on creation), warlocks (lvl2 special choice), rogues (lvl3), clerics (trickery domain)
