I like the suggestions for a simpler scheme, are there any games that use this?

Can''t verify all aspects, but I had Neverwinter Nights on the mind as I was typing.

Also you said:
"If there is a single player and a single enemy, the camera orients itself ''over the shoulder'' of the player, pointed at the enemy."

Can you explain how the camera moves in this set up?

The camera pans and "zooms", if you will. Panning is along the circumference of the circle proscribed with the enemy as the center and the player as a point on the circumference (thus their axis of interaction defines the radius). Zooming occurs along the radius (axis of interaction), perhaps to emphasize certain animations or special effects, and can occur both + (decreased FOV, increased scale) and - (increased FOV, decreased scale).

Personally, I''ve always thought that the 2 N64 Zelda games had the best 3rd person camera. I think the camera should always be a short distance behind you, it should rotate with you, you should be able to purposely aim it at things with a first-person mode or something, and whenever an action is taken by player it should focus on a target to give players the best view.

void Signature(void* Pointer)
{
PObject(Pointer)->ShowMessage("Why do we need so many pointers?");
};

I believe there''s a recent Gamasutra article about this; I haven''t read over it yet, but one of the images was of the camera "acting intelligently", letting the player see around corners, instead of following his avatar around blindly.