Thebazilly
Any persistent AoE damage spells seem to be extremely good, especially if you can set them up in a choke point and continually shove enemies back into them. Hunger of Hadar, Wall of Fire, Cloud of Daggers, Spike Growth, etc.
Spells that reposition enemies can also take the place of shoves: Thuder Wave, Eldritch Blast with repelling invocation. You miss out on loot if you kill a boss this way, but sometimes the cheese is too delicious.
Spirit Guardians has been good to me. Sometimes I just have Shadowheart cast it and spend her action dashing through all the enemies on screen.
Would definitely recommend giving Astarion the Thief subclass for the broken bonus action economy. It meshes well with his vampire bite ability.
Now it is just Field.
You have another chance to get her just before entering Act 2 if you head to the Mountain Pass. If you enter Act 2 without her, she is gone forever.
Ladyhawke, Excalibur (this one is much more R rated than most, it features an on-screen rape in the first 5 minutes), Legend, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, Krull, Conan.
The 80’s were really a heyday for fantasy movies, weren’t they?
There are two battles before the final boss. One is the courtyard you are at. The other isn’t so much a battle as a harried sprint to your objective. There’s another restoration pod at the door to the boss. Go ham.
Edit: The final boss fight is not a gimme, though, so don’t use up all your consumables on the way there! I went into part of it expecting a victory lap and got my shit packed.