hahah yeah you should see what I did to my tree ;)~

Don't know if this is exactly what you're asking but these have been my observations on combat in RPGs.

I don't remember what style combat was done in Secret of Mana. However, I noticed some time ago that most RPGs seem to have combat sequences for random encounters that last 2 to 3 rounds or 2 to 3 hits before the enemies that are attacking you are completly vanquished when the player character(s) are level and powered up to the appropriate degree they're expected to be for the location/area/dungeon that they are fighting in.

In short, the magic number seems to be 2 to 3 for random encounters.
Boss battles are another matter.

(I don't think secret of mana works like this but consider...)

This means, in an FF6 style game combat should be over around the time each character has attacked twice. Each round you can expect each enemy to deal out some amount of damage. How much? Well personally, I don't like having to heal every time I'm in combat. Again, I'd suggest the players would require healing after about the 2nd or 3rd encounter. If you figure your player character will have around 100hp, then when they come out of combat you'd expect them to loose around 33hp. So the amount of damage that the monster(s) deals out should work out to that. So if a monster tends to fight solo then it might inflict about 15hp damage per round. If a monster fights in packs of 3 then it'd inflict around 5hp. etc. Frequency of encounters should be worked around oppertunities for healing or restoration.

Now that wouldn't necissarily apply to games with other styles of combat. But think of how many games seem to require you take dish out 2 to 3 hits for some otherwise random enemy. If you know what's required of the player to kill an enemy you can figure out what the enemy will as an oppertunity to do to the player. You'll also likely know how far between points the player will need to travel based on the map you want to create. I think with these basic points you can figure out frequency of encounters, frequency that you need to provide healing, weapon strength, armor strength, damage a monster inflicts, damage a player inflicts, and hit points for both player characters and monsters.

As a player levels up, the amount of damage they inflict per attack will increase through either stat increases or improved weaponds. Of course, the mosters in the new area the player is in will get tougher as well. But if combat with these new mosters stay at 2 to 3 rounds or hits each, the mosters in the old areas will become easier if the player chooses to return to that area. (I've had a hard time explaining this part to people in the past. Hope I explained it well this time.)

I've yet to put all this to the test. I don't know if this is the way designers think when they're planning these sorts of games, but it's how I'd approach planning combat at least in the beginning stages.