Leading up to Baramos

Over the weekend I've made some great progress on my Dragon Warrior III solo hero challenge. I have made it to level 93, with an impressive 192 strength score. From the reading I've done, I think that I've been lucky to get a score that high without any manipulation. It looks increasingly like the seed farming portion of my quest might not take as long as I'd feared.

I've done several trial runs against Baramos with different equipment options and strategies. I've also been monitoring the effect of my strength score on the battle. My last attempt appeared to be finally approaching or maybe even slightly past a break-even point in damage output, but the fight didn't last long enough to be sure if that would hold in the long term. Once I hit level 99 I'll do one last benchmark fight to estimate how much more I need to do stat-wise to ensure the possibility of victory.

It seems to me that the most effective overall strategy is to equip the Dragon Mail and cast Stopspell on Baramos. His resulting attack pattern consistently does in the ballpark of 110 per round, just low enough to consistently go three attack rounds before healing on the fourth.

I also tried using Magic Armor without casting Stopspell, which is the strategy used by one other person who successfully did this. I found that it was slightly more favorable, up until the point that the Chaos spell took effect. After that point, Baramos stopped casting that spell and the strategy lost whatever small edge it had over the other.

I also most recently tried using the Cloak of Evasion with Stopspell, which had been suggested by someone at one point. Something that has been well shared on Gamefaqs.com, which isn't obvious on a casual playthrough, is that there is a hidden evasion bonus granted by this armor which makes it a better armor than you would think. It's one of the most, if not the most, effective armors in the game against physical attacks because of the increased chance of missing outright. And once you cast Stopspell on Baramos, two-thirds of his attack pattern consists of physical attacks.

Unfortunately, the physical evasion bonus doesn't compensate for the bonus you lose by not having breath reduction. My performance with this strategy was notably worse than either of the other two strategies.

I know it might potentially take several weeks yet to beat Baramos, depending on just how high my strength score needs to be and how long it takes to get the seeds. But it feels so close that I have a hard time thinking about anything else during the day when I'm away. I see Baramos standing before me, taunting me throughout the day. It's constantly at or near the front of my mind.

I expect to be able to reach level 99 by the end of tomorrow at the latest. We'll see just how things go from there.