I beat Mance on my 2nd try. I had plenty of HP and MP potions to spare(4 each left over). I don't know why I tried to save potions for the final boss. I prepped the bear mace, magnet fireball, extra gold,whupaz and scherf potion., and the plate mail. First stage was easy as usual. The bear mace made boss 1 not blink and helped with the DPs. Used no potions. In stage 2, I was lucky to find a Battlemage ring in an early shop. I bought a scherf. potion in each apothecary from the first 2 stages and got another one in the sub dungeon from stage 1. The boss went down with no potions other than a singe scherf. I was kind of worried as I beat the first 2 bosses at level 9. I leveled poorly.
When I used Lemisee on stage 3, I knew I had a good chance to win. I got EM for my god and B2P. With B2P and a Battlemage ring from before, I tore through until level 7. I started to fight Mance with about 35% of black space left. I started pelting him with many fireballs. I threw in 2 level ups as well. I bought a burn salve for the corrosion curse. I went through all my potions effectively (8 HP, 8 MP, and 3 scherf potions). I was an idiot as I forgot to convert stuff and kill popcorn enemies before the GG curse hit. But with my remaining resources, it was no problem. I had a Helpmeh glyph to finish the fight out top. Even with the 1 extra HP and MP potion in the sub dungeon and a lot of MP from EM, I finished the triple challenge with 3 HP and 3 MP potions left over. It felt great winning tri-quest 1.
I know that potion conservation isn't necessary in the first tri-quest, but is every potion needed for the remaining 2 tri-quests at stage 3?