Granting/Choosing new Spells from books like Xanathar

[Valhingen]

I have been wondering if there is any agreement how to bring these spells into a given campaign? For any arcane spells I suppose you can say players can find them (but can they freely pick them on level up?) but what about divine - does a cleric wake up one morning with a dozen new spells just because the DM bought a new book?

[damned]

I have been wondering if there is any agreement how to bring these spells into a given campaign? For any arcane spells I suppose you can say players can find them (but can they freely pick them on level up?) but what about divine - does a cleric wake up one morning with a dozen new spells just because the DM bought a new book?

It is a fantasy role playing game :)
You can always leave the new spells out until the NEXT campaign?

[GunnarGreybeard]

For an existing campaign I would not allow that content, at least not at first. I would need to become familiar enough with the stuff in the new book to make sure nothing in there will throw things out of balance. Just let the players know your decision up front and if you think you'll be open to it later, tell them you will reconsider at a future date, say the next time they level up or at a major story change/break.

[Zacchaeus]

does a cleric wake up one morning with a dozen new spells just because the DM bought a new book?

Yes! Players want more stuff.

As the other two posts hint at; this is your campaign so you are the final arbiter of what happens in your campaign. There are may ways that you can insert new stuff into a campaign via treasure hoards, quests, patrons etc but ultimately it is up to you (and to some extent pressure from players wanting to use the new stuff).

[El Condoro]

In my admittedly limited experience, players don't care if they get access to all the spells as long as they get access to *that really cool* spell that they really want. If they want it, they or their PC might have to work for it - a small service for the god granting it, or the wizard who has it on a scroll, etc or they can create what their PC has to do to get it and it becomes part of the adventure.

[LordEntrails]

IMO, for arcane casters I don't allow them to t pick the spells, they have to find it on a scroll or in a library or someone's spell book etc. As for divine spells, not sure what I'm going to do yet. I think I'll take the same route as with arcane spells, but not sure.

[GavinRuneblade]

I discuss it at the table and we usually find a few effects that are very appropriate for a few characters but a lot of stuff is cool, but out of character. For those things that are appropriate we as a group look at how we think it might impact balance and then if it seems safe I let players take the stuff that fits. This includes not only spells, but I have a character being rebuilt with a new background and moving from a dragon sorcerer to one of the new variants (I forget offhand which one) because it totally fits better. The rest we leave out until later and all of them know that if it turns out to break things I'll either homerule or remove the new stuff as needed to keep the game working.

I am lucky to not have any diehard abusive powergamers, so typically everyone wants effects that make their characters fit their theme better, not just "oooh this does the most damage". I had other groups that I could not be this generous.