I agree that obviously Larian SHOULD and indeed, they actually DO have the freedom to tweak and change monssters as they see fit. The question is if they're using that freedom to good effect. I personally don't know D&D lore so the fact that enemies don't match isn't strictly what bothers me about the changes. What bothers me is that it's another (in my mind particularly illustrative) example of something that a few people on the forums-including I think Tuco himself-have mentioned. It feels like Larian is constantly fighting against the D&D rules and lore in order to create a game that matches their vision. Hearing about all the differences and changes they've made to enemies right off the bat, the only conclusion I can reach is that they designed the monsters for the encounters they wanted rather than choosing monsters that would make sense and designing encounters around them. I had no idea intellect devourers and imps were meant to be so strong, nor did I realize that (for IDs at least) there were another grunt creature type that could have taken their place.
Honestly the thing tha tmost bugs me about the way they apparently have been changing creatures is that it shows that they're throwing out the concept of challenge rating, which is a simple and effective tool that could have been a great help to them. The game came with a pre-made system for how to manage and balance enemy encounters, but now they've thrown that out the window and made things harder for themselves in a way that wasn't entirely necessary.
