Entering Act 2. Pre rebuilding everyone.
The party
Shadowheart Trickery Cleric 8
Still underwhelming but perfectly solid MC
Lae'zel War Cleric 8
This is pre-rebuild so she was solid but not at her best
Gale Tempest Cleric 8
MVP for a long time; this would be threatened post-respec
Astarion Death Cleric 8
The potential was there, he was mostly relegated to animating corpses and being a frontliner. This would get a lot better post re-spec
Timeline
4th October: played Bg3 from maybe 12am to 7:30am; cleared creche boss, undead patrol; entered Act 2 and slowly but surely cleared spider guy et al; all shadow mounds except big one fight; ravens, dogs, harper ambush and garrots; under Last Light and Masons Guild then did a few errands in Moonrise etc - very close to level 8.
Assessment