I've reviewed every bit of information I can find regarding how to proceed here. The problem with fighting Baramos solo is that it is difficult to consistently deal enough damage to overcome his natural regeneration. The game never explicitly lets the player know this, but Baramos naturally heals anywhere from 90 to 110 HP every round. That means, for example, that if you heal every third round, you have to average 150 damage on every non-healing round just to break even. Even at Level 99, a Hero with normal stats doesn't have a chance with physical attacks. But with normal stats, he also doesn't have enough MP to do it with magic attacks, either.
Everything I've read suggests that Baramos generally can't be beaten solo without at least one of the following things:
1. Using the Noh Mask. This dramatically increases your defense, allowing you to go longer without healing. The problem with this is that it's impossible to leave Baramos' castle without removing it after the fight, but since it's cursed it can't be removed normally without leaving the castle. However, a well documented bug lets you ditch the mask if you open an uopened treasure chest in the castle while your inventory is full.
2. Manipulating MP gains at level-up. Your MP gains at level up are random. A simple and widely-used strategy by Solo runners is to save the game before level-up, then reset if the MP gain is not suitably high. Employing this strategy can result in maximum MP levels well above what you're likely to see without doing this. This gives you more overall endurance in the fight (in general you don't lose until you run out of MP) but in particular, it can give you high enough MP to spam Baramos with Lightning every non-healing round until he falls.
3. Obtaining Strength Seeds and/or Acorns of Life from random enemy drops and using them. The higher strength, the more physical damage you can do to overcome Baramos' regeneration. The more HP you have, the less frequently you have to stop and heal.
My research hasn't been enough to confirm positively that any of these methods can be employed by itself without one of the other two. It appears that most people who have done this challenge have used a combination of the first two strategies. The message boards for this game on Gamefaqs.com have posts from a user, Joaquintall, who did it without the Noh Mask, using the Strength Seeds (whose run and message board discussions have provided an extremely useful template). I think he didn't start out with MP manipulation, but may have used it a little bit in his later levels. Another user responded to his posts saying he had done it with MP manipulation and extensive use of Acorns of Life.
I generally don't use glitches or bugs in my runs, so using the Noh Mask against Baramos, which can't be done successfully without abusing the bug to remove it, was never going to be on the table for me if another way could be demonstrated.
I'm on the fence about MP manipulation. I'm not sure it's fundamentally different from strategies I have used on games in the past involving the Reset button, particularly in casinos on Dragon Quest games. It's also in principle not too different from my approach to death in the Dragon Quest games. When I was young I thought it wasn't fair to have infinite lives, so I developed a habit that I've always found hard to break of resetting whenever I die, no matter what I lose in the process. But I've only realized in my most recent challenge playthroughs how resetting can give an unfair advantage by not halving my gold, particularly in Dragon Quest II.
However, when I started this file years ago, not knowing what challenges the run presented, I was not manipulating stat gains. I'm too stubborn to change fundamental strategies this late into it, and was already at level 30, having squandered most of the range it would have been useful. So I decided not to use the MP manipulation strategy.
That leaves me to rely on Strength Seeds and Acorns of Life. The problem is, it seems that there is no monster that drops either one at a rate higher than 1/64. Given that I will likely need a large number of seeds, it seems it will take me a considerable amount of time to get all the seeds I need. I believe that, for the time required to get them, the Strength Seeds will have a greater value, so I will concentrate on them. But it's going to take a while.
I am currently at level 60. I think I'll max out my level before going for the seeds, so I have a better idea of just how many I need. That may mean wasted EXP later on, but the EXP grind is small compared to the effort for Strength Seeds anyway. I "wasted" many an experience point trying to get the Staff of Reflection when I did that, but I found it much easier to concentrate on that goal when I wasn't dividing my attention toward level-ups.
EDIT: After posting this yesterday, when I got home and had a minute I decided to try fighting Baramos with the Noh Mask, to use the fight as a bit of a benchmark and better understand everything I've read. Using the Noh Mask (as well as a suit of Dragon Mail and the Orochi Sword Sap effect) I was able to beat Baramos without particular difficulty at level 60. This can definitely be done without any stat manipulation with the Noh Mask, as long as you approach the fight properly.
Baramos is susceptible, albeit somewhat resistant, to both Sap and Stopspell. Stopspell dramatically changes his attack pattern because he skips his magic attacks, repeating the pattern of two physical attacks and his breath attack. I'm not sure this is necessarily better under normal circumstances, but wearing the Noh Mask and Dragon Mail, this severely limits the damage he does to you. The breath attack, used two of every three rounds, does a little more than 60 damage, but the physical attacks frequently hit for less than 10 each, so every third round has minimal damage. Under these circumstances, I only healed every six or seven rounds. Having hit him twice with Sap before starting my attacks, it was enough to deal more damage than he regenerated, even if it wasn't that much. I tracked the damage I was doing each round. After all status effects were set and I committed to the attack, it took me 126 turns to finish him off. I cast Healall a total of 16 times after starting to attack. (I cast that spell a few times more times while working on Sap and Stopspell, but I didn't record that.) I got two critical hits, which is quite reasonable for a 126-turn fight (odds for each hit are 1/64, or 2/128). I ended the fight with thirty-something MP left.
My strength stat is one-hundred-sixty-something and my Max MP is 177, neither one adjusted beyond the seeds you find in game or that have dropped without actively trying for a drop.
So it is definitely possible to beat Baramos with the Noh Mask strategy without using MP manipulation or excessive seed gathering.
(Naturally, I did not save my file as I don't intend to use the Noh Mask, but trying with it served to be educational.)
EDIT: After posting this yesterday, when I got home and had a minute I decided to try fighting Baramos with the Noh Mask, to use the fight as a bit of a benchmark and better understand everything I've read. Using the Noh Mask (as well as a suit of Dragon Mail and the Orochi Sword Sap effect) I was able to beat Baramos without particular difficulty at level 60. This can definitely be done without any stat manipulation with the Noh Mask, as long as you approach the fight properly.
Baramos is susceptible, albeit somewhat resistant, to both Sap and Stopspell. Stopspell dramatically changes his attack pattern because he skips his magic attacks, repeating the pattern of two physical attacks and his breath attack. I'm not sure this is necessarily better under normal circumstances, but wearing the Noh Mask and Dragon Mail, this severely limits the damage he does to you. The breath attack, used two of every three rounds, does a little more than 60 damage, but the physical attacks frequently hit for less than 10 each, so every third round has minimal damage. Under these circumstances, I only healed every six or seven rounds. Having hit him twice with Sap before starting my attacks, it was enough to deal more damage than he regenerated, even if it wasn't that much. I tracked the damage I was doing each round. After all status effects were set and I committed to the attack, it took me 126 turns to finish him off. I cast Healall a total of 16 times after starting to attack. (I cast that spell a few times more times while working on Sap and Stopspell, but I didn't record that.) I got two critical hits, which is quite reasonable for a 126-turn fight (odds for each hit are 1/64, or 2/128). I ended the fight with thirty-something MP left.
My strength stat is one-hundred-sixty-something and my Max MP is 177, neither one adjusted beyond the seeds you find in game or that have dropped without actively trying for a drop.
So it is definitely possible to beat Baramos with the Noh Mask strategy without using MP manipulation or excessive seed gathering.
(Naturally, I did not save my file as I don't intend to use the Noh Mask, but trying with it served to be educational.)
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