Netheril's Fall - First Impressions

If Astarion's Book of Hungers is the player-facing add-on for Heroes of Faerun, than Netheril's Fall is the slightly more beefy add-on for Adventures in Faerun. The new digital "DLC" for the Forgotten Realms book is a gazetteer for the lost kingdom of Netheril, with an overview of the fallen kingdom, a look at two of its cities (one flying city, Eileanar, and the landbound city Conch), some magically-themed environmental hazards, and a short collection of mini-adventures in the style of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Netheril's Fall is functionally a mini-gazetteer, albeit not quite as beefy as the five gazetteers found in Adventures in Faerun that detail various regions.

At first glance, it's easy to see why Netheril's Fall wasn't included in Adventures in Faerun. Netheril is a fallen empire and having an adventure in Netheril will likely require the use of time gates (which are conveniently explained in the supplement, with two adventures dedicated to traveling and crossing through a Time Gate. I'll note that the adventures in this book feel much more specific than what we saw in Adventures in Faerun or the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. While the adventures in other books could be "plugged" into any level-appropriate campaign, these adventures feel much more narrow in scope and cover specific locations or events found in the DLC. There's a few adventures in Adventures in Faerun that cover locales seen in the gazetteer, but there aren't very many that cover a specific event. I don't mind the "one page adventure" format, but I'm not sure it works with every adventure type. If an adventure sends players into a mad wizard's attempted ascent into godhood, I want a little more meat than a few encounters and a resolution of "well, the players will have time to explore the city before the ritual fails."

Another criticism I have of Netheril's Fall is that Netheril doesn't feel nearly as fantastical as an ancient high-magic society should. Given that Adventures in Faerun did a very find job of elevating the Forgotten Realms beyond its generic high fantasy trappings, I feel like a bit more care could have really sold Netheril as more fantastical in nature than what we got. If we could have gotten a few more pages about Netheril's culture, I feel like Netheril would have been more appealing as a place that DMs would want to incorporate into their campaigns. As presented, there are a few cool ideas, but even the phaerimm (one of my favorite D&D monsters) feel a bit flat compared to what we would have gotten.

I was critical of Astarion's Book of Hunger's price point, and while I feel that $15 is still too high for Netheril's Fall, there's a lot more "content" compared to that book. Generally speaking, some adventure content, a gazetteer, and some monster statblocks is probably a bit more valuable than one new species and a collection of feats, although I'm probably a bit biased towards DM content since I'm usually the one behind the DM screen. I personally would had preferred a $10 price point for this DLC, but others may feel that the price point of these are more fair.

All in all, I feel a bit underwhelmed by Netheril's Fall. Netheril seems like a very cool part of Forgotten Realms lore, but it's not given full justice here. I know there's some other Netheril content out there from past editions, and I encourage people to check those out on DMs Guild if they want a real deep dive into this lost empire.

 

[JPL]

Seems like they could've knocked out some wizard subclasses, to model the different divisions in schools/traditions back in the days of yore. And I supposed they could've done 10th level spells and such, but that's a whole separate can of worms.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

There are also still living Netherese wizards. The Shades that returned in their floating city. And others. More are liches as you mention.

That's true, but I am not certain Larloch or Aumvor are people you'd seek to interview for your master's thesis at Candlekeep.

Though not all arcanists were evil, so some good ones might still be out there.

 

[Maxperson]

That's true, but I am not certain Larloch or Aumvor are people you'd seek to interview for your master's thesis at Candlekeep.

Though not all arcanists were evil, so some good ones might still be out there.

One of Halaster's apprentices was a still living Netherese Wizard who was killed in 1369 or something like that.

 

[Dire Bare]

I've always felt that ancient Netheril wasn't a very interesting place to visit, should you stumble across a time-gate. Flying cities are cool, but overall if just felt like the ancient Realms that are pretty much the same as the modern Realms. This supplement doesn't change that, of course.

I'd rather have a culture of flying cities in my "modern" campaign, other than the distant past.

But this is a genre problem overall, not just a problem with the Realms.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd rather have a culture of flying cities in my "modern" campaign, other than the distant past.

The party cleric, whilst under the influence of a confusion spell, stumbles through a time portal. The next thing you notice, is the sky is full of flying cities.

 

[TravDoc42]

I'm planning on using phaerimm pretty extensively as baddies in my upcoming campaign in Faerûn, so I'm thankful for the phaerimm elder stat block. Glad to have a Boss Level stat block for these iconic monsters!

 

[Zardnaar]

I mean plus fantasy magic makes sure stuff gets preserved without decay. Plus spells like Legend Lore allows lost lore to be recovered. And like 5 of Netherils cities survived Netheril's Fall. One of them saved by Shar pulling it into the Plane of Shadows, one of saved by Selune (wth is Opus on that Netheril map? Its my favourite Netherese City) pulling it into Ysgard (or Brightwater or Gates of the Moon depending upon edition), and three got gentle dropped to the ground by Mystria before they crashed, the rest just crashed into the ground.

That we know off. Can always add another surviving city.

My idea is another one survived. It was small exploration one and it could "land" to collect samples. Its in Osse.

There were 54 total but theres not 54 named and maybe a dozen crash sites known off.

 

[Zardnaar]

That depends on the DM running it. I've been running the Realms since 1e when elves lived 2000+ years. It wouldn't have made any sense for me to have a ton of elves who were alive before the fall of Netherill and still alive in my game to suddenly have died more than a thousand years before. Especially since the age change of elves is pretty arbitrary. There's no real reason for it other than change for the sake of change. Since my game needs the continuity, elves still live to 2000+ years and some still remember Netheril at its prime.

They might remember Netheril but it wasnt at its prime when it fell.

Wasn't it only one subrace of elves that lived 2000 years?

 

[Zardnaar]

There are also still living Netherese wizards. The Shades that returned in their floating city. And others. More are liches as you mention.

Surviving wizards or others generally are in hiding. From the shades or other Netherese survivors.

A few are no longer human if they're not undead.

 

[Maxperson]

They might remember Netheril but it wasnt at its prime when it fell.

Wasn't it only one subrace of elves that lived 2000 years?

Gray elves. The others lived like 1500 or 1750 or something like that. However, humans only live to about 75, but some live to 110+. Elves would be similar with some living 2500 or more years.