Amoungst our group we have a High Elf player whom regularly takes the Lore of Shadows. When my turn came up to play him I naturally took the Lore of Life because I just really like the lore. However my eyes were openned when I played against him. By the Old Ones! That lore was sucking the life right out of my army and I was flailing around like a helpless babe! The hex spells he was casting left, right and up the middle were making his already close combat powerful army into a beast in hth.
We postponed our game but I tested out Death. Worked fairly well but I got some terrible rolls (Including forgetting half my spells and reducing my mage to L1) which resulted in me not causing a single wound with death, my L2 Skink Priest actually did better! Main problem I had was the 12" range on most of them. Not ruled out but not convinced. On the other hand salamander, terradon skink chief and scar vet earned their points!
lore of death is awesome but i never use it with lizardmen sinde i don't want my slann and temple gaurds to get a purple sun on them when i roll a misfire ;p you might take the risk if the unit has a potion of speed so the will have I 5 for that turn.