I oppose on principle tying the hands of the players and saying "no you cannot fight the way you want, you have to follow the script because that is more dramatic."
I agree wholeheartedly with this. The idea that you HAVE to hold back, when you're, and this is real important, in a FIGHT TO THE DEATH, is stupid. People fighting to the death,a s almost every fight int his game is, will not want to slowly escalate over time. THey will want to ensure, as quickly as possible, that the foe that threatens them is at the least incapacitated. Or that their armor is worn away, or whatever.
Even then, they may not open with their super skills if they're thinking "Wow, his armor looks WAY tough, I think we'll fight a bit before I try my mega freeze beam blaster on him." or whatever.
