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.

 

[Zardnaar]

Which makes them FAR more than a mechanical spellbook as I said. Of course, they also include different methods of item creation, spell research, etc., so they could give mechanical bonuses that way. As well as bonuses to knowledge rolls. So their mechanical impact could be more than, "Hey, here's a fireball spell."

They haven't been presented that way.

Theres one in Candlekeep mysteries. If you study it for long enough you get +2 intelligence (max 22) and advantage on saves vs magic.

That's interesting collect a few of them and yeah......

Its what I would do
Give them various abilities.

 

[Maxperson]

They haven't been presented that way.

They literally have. The 2e Netheril books say that they have information not known in them until you are good enough to learn those secrets and there are always more. That's how spells above 10th level were created by the Arcanists. They used the knowledge in the Nether scrolls. That's how artifacts were created. They used the scrolls.

The Magicus Creare says there is information beyond the normal construction of magic items. That information will be a mechanical benefit. That the rules didn't spell it out doesn't mean that the mechanical benefit isn't there. It just means the DM has to do it. When an artifact like the Nether Scrolls is filled with unknown information, that will generally translate into mechanical benefits should you be able to learn from them.

Theres one in Candlekeep mysteries. If you study it for long enough you get +2 intelligence (max 22) and advantage on saves vs magic.

That's interesting collect a few of them and yeah......

Its what I would do
Give them various abilities.

It stands to reason then that they would all have such benefits.

 

[Zardnaar]

They literally have. The 2e Netheril books say that they have information not known in them until you are good enough to learn those secrets and there are always more. That's how spells above 10th level were created by the Arcanists. They used the knowledge in the Nether scrolls. That's how artifacts were created. They used the scrolls.

The Magicus Creare says there is information beyond the normal construction of magic items. That information will be a mechanical benefit. That the rules didn't spell it out doesn't mean that the mechanical benefit isn't there. It just means the DM has to do it. When an artifact like the Nether Scrolls is filled with unknown information, that will generally translate into mechanical benefits should you be able to learn from them.

It stands to reason then that they would all have such benefits.

It does. Its the way I would do it.

Iirc 2E Netheril set you dont need them to start using 10th and 11th level spells.

And its not going to matter anyway I just very few played those levels in Netheril set.

I think they started them out in 3E as well. Looking at the wiki it seems they're back in the wild again.

Theres a lot the DM coukd do with them. Lvl 10 soell slots via new epic books, reintroducing those level 10+ spells, figuring out a way to bypass Mystras ban etc.

All DM dependent of course. Using one or two to repair a mythallar as well

 

[evildmguy]

All DM dependent of course. Using one or two to repair a mythallar as well

Okay, that's inspiring!

A mythal/protective ward is failing and the bad guy will get the thing unless the PCs fix it. Perhaps it's done in stages. The ward is fine and the group goes and gets a Nether Scroll. Maybe they get clues to another one. As they head back, the ward is being assaulted and they have to sneak back in. Then use the Nether Scrolls to firm up the ward.

I'm also imagining the Nether Scrolls being reactive. They don't just have instructions to make a thing. They can examine a thing in front of them and tell you all about it including what is failing and how to fix it. That could be tough as the magic system isn't that detailed but maybe it needs a rare component, a very rare, and some uncommon ones. The defenders will hold off while the group goes to get what is needed, so there is a definite time limit. Depending when this happens in the campaign, maybe they already know where these things are and now have to figure out their route to get the components for the fix.

Normally, the Nether Scrolls are about order. They want to teach magic, after all. In bypassing the weave, and Mystra, though, when used in this fashion, the Nether Scroll is lost. It randomly teleports someplace else. They let one person in the group gain a benefit before moving on.

Theres one in Candlekeep mysteries. If you study it for long enough you get +2 intelligence (max 22) and advantage on saves vs magic.

This is really good. Maybe the only mortal to ever read them all used them to ascend is Azuth? I like that the test to become a god of magic is to find the thing most associated with magic in Faerun. (I'm contrasting this to Paizo's Golarion which has the starstone test to become a god but of course it's "left up to each DM to decide what that means.")

I keep flip flopping on how I want to see magic defined. Sometimes I want magic like science. Do these things in this way with these ingredients and create the same thing every time. Other times, I want magic to be wonder. It's not a strict recipe to make an item but learning what the current magical conditions are. Equally, it could be that how things are made are personal. A potion of haste by caster A has a base of coffee. For caster B, the base is green tea. For caster C, it's a sugary candy. When caster D reads another casters recipe, he has to understand himself and convert what they are doing to how he would do it. In all cases, the ingredients create a certain mindset that creates the haste effect.

Elves in my campaign have deep lore knowledge, pass that lore and learning down amongst themselves, and things that are 3,000 to 5,000 years in the past aren't a stretch.

Obviously, what anyone does in their campaign has nothing to do with me. I think I finally figured out why I keep asking Maxperson his thoughts on elves. He has made them strong and powerful, and with how he describes elves, why aren't they dominant? For me, FR has answered this. When the elves got their stuff together, they ruled and reigned until the time of the Crown Wars, which saw the elves in decline. It took three thousand years, so this might fit several views of elves. Now is supposed to be the time of Humans in the Realms, which is why I push back on making the elves perfect. They had their time and probably shouldn't be, or maybe can't be, that perfect anymore.

I think one of the big changes from 2E to 3E Realms was the Thunder Blessing to the dwarves. It's weird, though, because that says that dwarven souls are finite. Maybe elven souls are as well and that's why elves can't reproduce fast? There could be some interesting philosophy and other ideas to pursue in those ideas. Does it mean there are more human souls? Orc souls? Or is this an in game rationale for why there humans are more plentiful? That was the trend in the 80s, and earlier, that humans were dominant in game worlds. The price of longevity? I mean, now I'm seeing someone trying to steal souls and use them for something.

Thanks for the discussion!