Taxonomies of Scale

https://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2025/06/ogres-elves-evil-phantoms-or-giants-you.html

Going in the opposite direction has been giving me useful results, too. Rather than categorically state “Aaracokra are ogres”, I will ask “what does this type of monster act like like?”

These Aaracokra are ogre-type and demand shiny things in tribute. They eat your mounts. They are cheating traders. These Aaracokra are elf-type and they look like nothing because you can’t see them camouflaged and hiding in the forest. Javelins rain down from the trees.

Elf-type Aboleth are super-genius masterminds plotting to secretly control the world for obscure goals. Phantom-type Aboleth are plague-spreaders trying to infect all sentients.

A phantom-type death knight sits in a ruined castle consumed by the “wrongs” it has been done, while an ogre-type is a conqueror leading skeletal hordes against the neighboring barony.