Haven’t played DE yet though, dunno if any rebalances of fights have changed things (I played original on tactician)
Ha, persuasion does nothing there other than flavor text (always ends up a fight). You win that fairly by good pre-positioning followed by nukes (you need to be able to burst her armor in one turn) and then perma-CC.
IIRC there was a persuade that worked there? Don’t recall. Also you usually end up killing the lot of them anyway by the end of that area, which you need to do for main quest anyway.
There’s probably more town/exploration stuff you can do for EXP as well. IIRC there’s nothing fighty in the north area except the sawmill so that can cover some stuff (there’s also a elemental puzzle with a hard fight that you can ignore).
Also, more cheese to consider is prebuffing when in conversation.