Persuasion does NOT need to be on your main character. Just have you character with Persuasion do the talking. This does NOT need to be your main character. There is only one point in the game I can think of when your main needs to have persuasion and you can just use the respec mirror on the Lady Vengeance to swap to if for that point. Pro tip. IF you have a lizard of elf in your party, they can handle both Persuasion and Loremaster. This frees up your other three characters to focus on more valuable Civil abilities like Bartering, Thievery and Lucky Charm. I recommend one character focus on Lucky Charm as the extra loot drops translate to extra funds to buy the skill books and gear you want. Keep some booze (beer and wine) on the character with Lucky Charm. If you can open 4-5 or more containers in a small area, have a drink of booze to get the +2 to Luck Charm. Again, it just means more loot. This increases the chance of finding loot you need or at worst getting more loot to sell. Persuasion/Thievery or Loremaster/Thievery can be a thing as well, if you know how to get the clepto items (items with either more thievery than normal or thievery on items that don't normally give it) around Driftwood.

Highly recommend that starting out you plan to have a character with 1 Persuasion (1 point in Persuasion is all you need in Fort Joy and lizards get one for free) as well as the Pet Pal talent. This can be EXTREMELY valuable at Fort Joy. Spoilers follow, don't read if you don't want to know.

1) Pet Pal alone allow you to talk to Buddy and get the Finding Emmie quest.
2) Free XP from talking to Birdie (caged source hound near Emmie of Finding Emmie quest) and getting the right outcome. Note : There is no XP for getting the wrong outcome and killing Birdie.
3) Using a Finesse then Wits persuasions can prevent the burning pigs from running around and blowing everything up.
3b) Also handy if the Pet Pal/Persuasion character blesses the first burning pig. You can use Wits to persuade the undead (Skapor) into not attacking you, which is more XP than just killing her.
4) Pet Pal allows you to talk to Murina the Brave. (One of my favorite NPCs in the game.)