I'm unsure how to link to an Unearthed Arcana. The article itself simply gives a download for a pdf. There are direct links to the pdf, but all the links download the pdf. Should I link to the article or should I link to the pdf with a warning that it will download? Are there any other options I'm missing?
These are the links in question.
As was briefly discussed in (now deleted) comments, it seems like it might just be something on your end at the moment that is causing the PDFs to be downloaded instead of opening in the browser. Either way, is this actually a problem? It's not like we're providing links to viruses or something.
Up until now, users have pretty much always linked directly to the PDF, if they choose to include a link to the material they're referencing. Just check out the various other questions tag unearthed-arcana.
I see no reason to change this.
Linking to the website won't change the need to download the PDF (if prompted) and doesn't provide any additional, vital information that users need to know. Hopefully you've provided a relevant quote from the document to give context and if people want to verify that that quote is correct or if there's any additional information needed in the document then they'll have to open the PDF anyway.
This helps with a few things, such as the possibility of a browser/computer/location blocking one link and not the other. And it also lets others see not only that the pdf exists but also where exactly it came from. Unfortunately this does mean you usually wouldn't put the link on the actual text or name of the UA article since you'd need to specify whether it's the website or the pdf.
The Bard's Magical Inspiration feature states:
If a creature has a Bardic Inspiration die from you and casts a spell, the creature can roll that die and add the number rolled to one damage or healing roll of the spell. The Bardic Inspiration die is then lost.
- Class Feature Variants Unearthed Arcana (page 3) [link to site] [link to pdf]
The Class Feature Variants Unearthed Arcana includes the Magical Inspiration feature for Bards which states (link to site, link to pdf):
If a creature has a Bardic Inspiration die from you and casts a spell, the creature can roll that die and add the number rolled to one damage or healing roll of the spell. The Bardic Inspiration die is then lost.
You could also do something like this, though it's slightly less clear/explicit I do think this is the best method, and is the one I'll likely be using:
The Class Feature Variants Unearthed Arcana states: (pdf direct link)
If a creature has a Bardic Inspiration die from you and casts a spell, the creature can roll that die and add the number rolled to one damage or healing roll of the spell. The Bardic Inspiration die is then lost.
