Miracle Sword was my saviour in that Dhoulmagus battle. I had Angelo buffing probably every other turn, sometimes Jessica buffed or nuked. If I was Miracle Swording with Hero, I was probably building tension with Yangus. The one turn Yangus did his tension'd attack, I built tension with Hero.

I can't remember if I had multiheal at that point. One of the first things I'd been doing in boss battles...is bring out my Pokemon team! They take some hits, deal out a pretty decent amount, and take 3 turns worth of it before the main squad comes back.

In most cases I've had, raising the tension once isn't much/any better than just attacking normally twice. Though I guess if you use it with magic, you can get just about 2 turns worth of casting damage with just one use of the MP. I think my playtime is upwards of 50 hours, and I've only gotten High Tension twice with Hero. I haven't done it very often, but I know I've tried to do it more than twice. And that damage is huge.

At the end of the battle, everyone else was dead but the Hero...who was still miracle-swording away. He was being healed just a little bit less than he was taking damage, and I guess I wore out Dhoulmagus before he did me.

I can't remember how far after that I am--I have beaten Jessica and the dog. I know I can (Spoiler maybe? Probly not.) fly now as well. The flight music is gorgeous, probably my favourite Dragon Quest piece and one of my favourite game themes in general.