[galraen]

I take it you mean spells such as Slay Living etc., yo me they're part of the game, as is death itself. It's the DM's responsibility to make sure that there are temples available until the party get high enough level to have raise dead, or to put raise dead scrolls in treasure occasionally.

If you're playing with rules that stipulate that Elves can't be raised, then a rod of resurrection should find its way into the parties back pack. Of course sometimes raise dead/resurrection doesn't work, if the DM is flexible with re-incarnation then that can be used as an option. But players should be prepared to bury characters when they start out, it happens. I've lost characters, and had others lose them when I've been DMing. One has to accept it, hold a wake or whatever, and roll a new character. It is a good idea IMO to have, and persuade your players to have a character ready to go in those situations. There's usually someone who turns up early for a session, us the time to prepare for the worst.

Banning save or die spells (and/or weapons) is not only unfair on monsters (and ALWAYS give the monsters and even break), it is also unfair on the party, there have been times in my campaigning days that the parties lives were saved by the arch-enemy failing such saves. And if the party have access to them, so should their opponents if appropriate.

The one spell I have routinely banned is disintegrate, for both sides. I do believe in giving deceased characters every chance of coming back, and that spell is too over the top, even for me.