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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1868015" data-attributes="member: 177">Well, who craetes the system?  What information do they have access to, and what ordering would be useful?Linneaus worked with gross physical characteristics because that's what he could get at.  Coincidentally, relating gross phyical characteristics are also what he'd find useful.  His system wound up reflecting evolution, because evolution happend to be behind the similarities and differences in gross physical characteristics he could see.In a D&D world, who is creating the system - probably a wizard or cleric, perhaps some royal Expert.  He's probably got some access to magic.  But what form of arrangement would be useful?Well, does evolution as we know it operate in his world?  If not, where do the critters come from?  If the relations of their origins are not reflected in their gross physical characteristics, a Linnean system isn't necessarily useful.  I'd actually think that such a researcher - working in a world without evolution, per se, might arrive at classifications similar to what teh MM uses - creature types and subtypes.  You lump all thehumanolids together because, for most of your intents and purposes, you can deal with them similarly.  You dump all the aberrations in the same box not because they are related in any way - they probably all come from different unconnected wizardly experiments - but due to how magic works all those experiments have certain similar results in terms of strengths and weaknesses.</blockquote>

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