NO I didnt wanna kill that chicken or the one in Cyseal barracks kitchen, LOL. Yes animals are amusing.
Spider Queen is dead meat for any fighter that can soak the damage and whirlwind or dust devil to kill her eggs and hurt her every turn, she is big but not all that tough but she can do a lot of damage in melee, actually I thought she would be much worse. Have your mage hit her with Ice or electricity, Also make sure ya throw rain on her, keep the poison from becoming fire! That toon gives me the creeps, I friggin hate spiders! I killed her with a 12th level party my first playthrough using those tactics, my party was seriously hurting afterwards though, she should be worth more XP. Oh and split the party up and flank her approach from Frederick's direction the south, and from the cave direction the west, if you approach from the south you seem to be able to get closer to her before she becomes active and combat starts.
Oh Yeah Pet pal is a skill that both source hunters should just have since you need it for certian quests, I think its kind of a gip, that you have to lose another talent to take something your gonna need. But Okay...I always give it to my mage she is the brains of the outfit, and the Knight, well lets just say he is the brawn, but together they are like Peanut butter and chocalate.
Heck at level 15 your about 3/4 of the way to the max level you can pretty much get to.
But They have adjusted so much on the last content patch lots of things may be slightly different than the first time through. I can see your reticence about starting over, I may have finished it once too then played again. Either way your gonna have fun, but I also hate not finishing something.