Definitely use Shamans in this game, then. I didn't use them at all in my Neoline game, but I'm up for something different. Demons are great too, of course. I kinda thought it would be cool to keep the Vampire theme as much as possible, but I suppose that will have to wait until Monteville.
The Pacca quest definitely isn't timed. I left it unfinished for most of my Neoline playthrough.
By the way, people on the Steam forum are complaining about Bibliophile being bugged - something, apparently, is 'resetting' the discount somehow? But they don't know what. So I would try to monitor that situation, or you'll end up using more crystals than you intended. It may be that it isn't worth spending more runes on Bibliophile for this reason.
Definitely teleport this time
DG Dobrev and I both finished on day 23 as Neoline and he beat me by about 40 points, 2080 to 2040 or thereabouts. He did way more fights than I!