I have played this mod a while ago, first hearing about it when I was a kid (from a french youtuber, again; the same guy btw)

What is it ?

Exploration expansion is a mod which adds 4 new dimensions to explore as well as new overworld and nether content in the form of cave overhauls and extra biomes.
Both the overworld, nether and newer environments have received their fair share of custom structures, dungeons and mobs including some bosses.

What does it offer ?

4 new dimensions that I will go a bit more into details below, as well as overworld biomes and mobs.
The structures/content added for the overworld and nether mainly include decorations like stalagmites or custom small cave-like dungeons filled with mob spawners.
The mod's dimension each have their set of mobs, decorations, structures and one boss (two extra bosses are found within overworld caves, and one which is supposedly found somewhere else, idk where though).

The overworld-nether Dimension :
Reminding me of a mod I found about later (Nether overload), it reimagines the nether as an overworld hellish place, with several biomes made of magma blocks and netherrack trying to emulate trees or cliffs. The most remarquable biome is called "Slavery", it contains trees of netherrack pilled on to of each other and steve-like mobs which could be nether servants rotting in hell. The structures here are mostly small towers, broken nether bridge structures or larger nether castles protected with blazes and hell guards; I would say this has to be my favorite dimension within this mod, despite the random crash(es)

The overworld-end Dimension :
An overworld-like end with several endstone wasteland biomes and ender forest/jungly areas; outside of underground lava this dimension features a new liquid in the form of end water (which makes you levitate for a bit) as well as a dangerous quicksand block which can be mistaken for endstone if you are walking without paying attention to the floor too much. There's also a new ore called ender rock, which has mostly uses in decorative blocks. There are new mobs made just for this dimension, even if they feel a bit wonky and very generic in behaviors (most of them even being explicit overworld or nether mob equivalents), sometimes appearing within larger squarey houses due to spawners (you can rarely find large ships, towers and more).
Weirdly, the ender wood block can't be placed horizontally and its planks cannot be used in any way in crafting recipes.
I have not found the place where the boss is supposed to appear in, but I can confirm he does exist

Cave 1 :
A cavern-type dimension (Nether-shaped) with hostile plant enemies, large jungly lakes with weird fishes and illagers hidden in treehouses or rare jungle mansions, this dimension features some amount of plant-like structures and one new ore too; it contains a quicksand-like block which looks just like the misspelled foliage block. I think this dimension is a bit too bland : there isn't much to do or find, and it doesn't even look that lush (which seemed to be what the mod was going for there). The boss is a bit of the enemy-spam kind like many others, but the fact it is able to fly makes it extra annoying; you can tell this as to be the dimension I like the least

Cave 2 :
A mycelium cave very much shaped like the Nether, it contains huge mushrooms (including new ones, some even upside-down), mooshroom and mushroom humanoids (some hostiles) and various structures in the form of statues, ruins and even a woodland mansion if you explore a bit more; For some reason, the boss structure makes the boss mob appear with an already low health, which I find weird; there isn't much to add about this dimension

Cons ?
This mod has most of its custom mobs only use the vanilla mob sound effects or player default hit sounds.
Since it is an MCreator mod which was made a long time ago, you have to expect the game to run slower or even crash while you are playing (happened to me at least once within the first dimension mentioned).
Some textures do not fit with vanilla minecraft's texture while many other does, it create a form of inconsistency (seen it in the charged obsidian blocks which is more detailed than the regular obsidian block; if every block and mob had textures with smaller pixels it would be its own artstyle, here it feels unintentional).
Most of the new mobs aren't that interesting in their behaviors (even if some look goofy and do fit), and I have noticed an issue with about every slime-like mob as their model is always the same (tiny) no matter their actual real hp/size and they leave regular vanilla slimes behind which I find odd.
Every Dimension is pretty much unbearable without night vision, even the more hellish one, and a lot of blocks/items are purely decorative, with several crafting inconsistencies such as the green crystal not able to be crafted into green crystal blocks.
Some structures spawn above the bedrock ceiling quite often, or dig through it in order to generate, which can break the immersion of the cavernish dimensions.

In conclusion

This is clearly a MCreator mod, which has some nice ideas sometimes but I feel like it tries to do more than it is capable of : this mod while having a lot of content technically speaking doesn't keep its quality all the way up the whole time, and between the textures, the crafts and the mob behaviors this mod isn't all that good.
Since a lot of people were downloading this mod to get an early cave update it seems the author decided to leave it behind for a cave-only mod instead.
Outside of that he made other roguelike dungeons-focused mods (at least one that I heard from but never really tried).

I would recommend trying those instead of playing this mod, it is too unstable/unmaintained to use in a pack even if it exhibits cool concepts.

This mod has more content in later versions, I will cover all illagers added until 1.18.2 the latest version of the mod currently, even if I mostly played with this mod in 1.12

What is it ?

A mod adding new illagers to the game, alongside a few structures to incorporate them. Later, after 1.14 dropped, they eventually added these mobs as raiders to encounter as well as new illagers with this vanilla mechanic in mind.

What does it offer ?

New creatures for the illager group as well as new structures to make their presence unavoidable within your Minecraft world; this mod also features some customized potions to pick up in some structures as well as a new enchantment to deal more damage to illagers (the same found in Minecraft Dungeons).
Every mob added by the mob is tied to the illagers, list below :

Here's the whole list of Illagers (SPOILERS) :

Present since 1.12

-The Archer :
A concept of an archer illager it nothing new, even in 1.12 as the hunter illager mod also featured a bow-wielding illager. This one is still a bit more interesting than just being a skeleton which can survive daylight as in 1.12 it is a ranged vindicator, which means it is significantly faster in its movement; In recent versions, the archer received its own more unique texture and is no longer as fast, firing arrows with random potion effects. Even if I don't really like its textures, the detail of him having his bow on his back while not using it is something I love. (They have their own structure which is pretty common, but might be seen often in other structures too) .
-The Enchanter :
Before Minecraft Dungeons was a thing, this mod added an enchanter : an member of the illager group all in blue playing on drums to give sudden boosts of strength to illagers nearby (while slowing you down too); He did not change from 1.12 to recent versions outside of receiving a skull mask on his face
-The Furantur :
A melee alchemist illager which will steal you potion effects if you get to close; sadly his behavior makes him interesting in situations so specific he ends up boring in many. He is not that great unfortunately
-The Hoarder :
Reminding me a bit of the behavior of the maid illager from the more recent mod Belly Button, this mob will look for items left on the ground and take them with him, dropping them on death. Main difference between his 1.12 and recent version is the fact that in 1.12 this mob didn't have any sound effects (reusing the player hit sound effects instead of illager sound effects). I feel like he is a bit too specific in his behavior to be well used in most scenarios he is put in, his main purpose I would guess is to steal the player's drops after which death within a larger structure like the illager fort, making him able to keep them from disappearing since he will carry them on himself instead
-The Necromancer :
An evoker variant which will only summon zombies and defend himself with several rows of fangs (he also tries to attack with the same defensive attack, which leads to him using a spell which cannot reach his enemies, slight oversight which could be corrected); there isn't much to add, but I find him to be one of the few good enough necromancer concepts portrayed as an illager (better ideas exist, especially within undeads, but among illager mods there's a surprising lack of decent necromancer concepts)
-The Illager King :
Just a more resilient, taller and stronger vindicator; he is used as a form of final miniboss within the rarest structure in the 1.12 version of the mod (at least), and outside of that serves little to no purpose of his own

Post 1.12 Additions

-The Berserker :
Probably designed and intended for raids at first, this mob looks like a gilded pillager with his face being taken from the raid omen potion effect. He is a melee illager which can grief certain blocks in order to reach his target
-The Illager Miner :
Having his own dedicated structure, the miner is more interesting than the excavator from Workshops of doom as he isn't just a less powerful vindicator but has abilities of his own involving explosives
-The Frostmancer :
Having his own structure, the clear parallel to the iceologer that is the frostmancer (that is, if he wasn't added beforehand); He has about three attacks with a blizzard area effect, frozen falling stalactites or summoning a stalagmite from below his target. I find him a bit too aggressive at times, but still a decent mob.
-The Illager General :
In raids, this mob generates small pillars with pillagers on top acting as proximity turrets, a concept reminding me of the Modifiger mod; I don't really like that he has no animation at all when attacking in melee though

-The Black Iron Golem :
The illager equivalent to the iron golem, this mob can also shoot explosive fireballs; I don't really like that he can deal melee damage without there being an attacking animation at the same time

The structures added (some on screens shown) are larger in 1.18 than in 1.12, and newer structures have been added, most notably the fort, but also other structures tied to newer mobs from the mod.

For the critics :
First of all there is no unique sound to discern one illager from another as they all reuse vindicator, pillager, evoker and illusioner sound effects.
All structures aren't particularly exceptional, mostly being an excuse to bundle the mod's illagers together (even more noticeable with some larger structures, such as the 1.18 illager center where hoarders and enchanters are pretty much everywhere), I usually don't take the time to really consider structures for mods like these but since some are actually larger dungeons I felt like I had to mention that.
In recent versions I noticed some structures appearing above water in oceanic biomes (the frozen castle appeared once or twice above water for some weird reason).
Most of the mobs while having received already a texture update could still benefit from another facelift as they appear pretty bland in comparison to many other modded raiders out there (aka in 1.12 it could have passed but no longer does in recent versions).

In conclusion

While a lot of mods have a similar level of quality (it being "good enough" in terms of gameplay and not that interesting in terms of aesthetics) in recent versions, it's hard to come across one with so many illagers added in 1.12 and so this mod ended up being used a lot in packs which wished to feature more illagers while sticking to that version of the game.
I would like to point out that I've seen textures packs reworking this mod's textures somewhere on modrinth, it is probably worth taking a look if you plan on using this mod seriously.

It is not an amazing illagers mod, and in comparison to some made in recent versions (Goety, Illage and Spillage, Illager Additions...) I would say it is really not that good, but it has some good ideas which could be exploited in interesting ways by other modders I'm sure.

soooooo as it turns out the 1.20.1 fabric version of the mod (I only tested the latest Neoforge release) actually already features an alpha test version with tweaks and changes which do take into account some of the complaints people including me typically have about the mod in its current state, especially concerning the warden kill requirement and the quality of the block textures which have drastically improved.
I am waiting for the update to be out of Alpha to properly cover the newer changes

What is it ?

Deeper and Darker is a mod which aims to answer the question : what is behind the portal-looking structure within the ancient cities ?
It currently only features a world made of sculking caves with a couple of different biomes, mobs and one hidden structure to plunder.

What does it offer ?

A whole new dimension called the Otherside which is one of the ambient horror type, containing four new environments, more mobs (mostly sculk-based and with base melee AI taken from the zombie) and a structure which has both loot and serves as a way out in case you lose your portal (which is pretty nice).
It features its own biomes (being the deeplands , the echoing forest , the blooming cavern and overcast columns ) with most containing individual blocks and ressources making them worth exploring.
The Transmitter and Staff are very interesting to me, and I would love to see more in terms of sculk-inspired technology, redstone engineering or combat (tool to crawl in walls like how the warden comes out of the ground ? Helmet blinding you but allowing you to witness sounds through walls ? there's so much potential to go wild with these concepts instead of staying satisfied with more powerful variants of already existing minecraft content I'm looking at you Soul Elytra ).

In short, this dimension could be seen as a slightly more interesting mining dimension with a unique horror twist in the form of being the home of everything sculk, while still having some extra content.

To start with the flaws, aesthetics and sounds matter to me, and I don't really like that most mobs just rely on the default player hit sound effects nor emit ambient sounds (the later could still be explained by the dimension being themed around darkness and silence technically speaking). I usually like it better if a dimension has a custom ambience or soundtrack, but to me it isn't an absolute prerequisite when it comes to the Otherside since it is sort of the Warden's lair and an interpretation of where the sculk comes from, so even if having a whole new ost to listen to while there would of course be amazing, it shouldn't the main priority to focus on when thinking about updating this mod I feel;
Still, I think future updates could at least remove the vanilla overworld music from playing there since it obviously doesn't fit with the more horror feel of the dimension.
Another thing is that entering the dimension requires killing a warden, a mob which is explicitely meant to be avoided hence why fighting it seems quite unbalanced and uninteresting in the base game as it is both fast, strong and resilient too (a combination of those three stats being really high is usually something you want to avoid while designing an enemy you are supposed to fight against, I would recommend checking videos about game design principles themed around enemy design since it could also serve the purpose of giving ideas for more unique behavior for the mod's various custom mobs); With this mod, if there is still a want to need fighting a big foe in order to light the portal, there is a need to change the way the warden behaves in combat or make another creature be required instead (same goes for most warden-related drops, which can already be obtained through other means which I find great).
I have also noticed phantoms spawn within the dimension, which while I love the idea of putting phantoms outside of their sleep mechanic like in the End I feel it doesn't really work that much within a heavily cavernous dimension, but maybe there could be creative ways to have them still work, it is just that if they end up spawning naturally they will constantly bonk their heads against ceiling and walls (and this dimension has a lot of that; maybe make them structure-specific where the structure is designed to take them into account ? idk).

In conclusion

Knowing this dimension mod was made before any and all announcements which are related to The Sift , I would like to say that even if it feels gimmicky at times, it could be turned into something far more interesting and is weirdly on point with some of its features.
The mod is well documented (having its own WIP wiki and outside documentation too + advancements, something I tend to forget about) and while it doesn't have a lot of configuration options, it having a config file is still better than nothing at all.
While this mod has plenty of flaws in its current state, I have no doubts it has great chances of changing with later updates as it is clearly stated on the mod's page that there will be more in both content and tweaks as there might be an added internal progression within the dimension;
Do not forget that they have a discord server where you can give feedback to and actively participate in overhauling this dimension mod, which has great potential while not that interesting currently (check out the mod's page, the link is there to be found).

Like I've said before : there's potential for this new dimension, and most beloved minecraft features are developed by multiple people drawing inspiration from several sources, so I am glad to see this project encouraging people to interact with it in this way, discussions are the best way to obtain a mod which might be liked by most.

What is it ?

Terrestria is a mod adding a handful of new biomes featuring new custom trees and environments to navigate;
Many of the biomes take inspiration from ExtrabiomesXL in a similar way Traverse does.

What does it offer ?

New biomes alongside new wood types/trees (and one or two ground plants), which are more realistic/vanilla+ than fantastic.
Some biomes are really nice, some are emptier, it really depends on which one we are talking about;
The mod also features a small thing which is quarter logs (only for some of this mod's trees for now), which I think is a nice addition I hope to see added to vanilla Minecraft someday.

I will here list every biome and explain what I like (or dislike) about each of them :
Caldera
A nice mountain alternative with lakey valleys; A bit weird that in the most recent versions of the mod the water isn't turquoise like stated on the biome's wiki page, but I quite like the biome otherwise (one of the many biomes to feature the hemlock tree type)
Canyon
A mountaineous desert which looks different (and in my opinion better) than the various hilly dune-like biomes found within biomes o' plenty, I find it great to navigate without being too close to the badlands/mesa biomes in terms of global generation; this one is probably one of my favorite biomes added by the mod, and looks similar to the ice maze biome added by aquamirae (I wonder if there's some inspiration in one way or another between the two mods, but honestly it could be completely unrelated)
Cypress Forest
A somewhat dense biome with trees of gray wood, perfect for a hidden vacation resort; I like this biome, the trees generate often enough for it to feel similar to a small irregular maze of leaves, which is pretty satisfying to explore
Cypress Swamp
Although the out-of-water sections of the biome feel a bit boring to me, when half submerged it is a cool biome; probably my favorite biome from the mod, but it could be due to betweenlands/biome makeover nostalgia in all honesty
Dense Woodlands
A biome concept which is better done in plenty of other mods : having a full oak forest, like in the older versions of the game before birch was introduced
Dunes
A bit of a forgettable biome, fits as a desert variant to bring more verticallity in sandy biomes (there is already a biome in this mod doing exactly that but better from my perspective)
Hemlock Rainforest
Another Hemlock-adding biome, interesting both from the treetops and from the hillier grounds in terms of travel, I really recommend building something there if you explore it in survival (and the wiki does too apparently)
Japanese Maple Forest
Probably the most iconic biome from this mod, the japanese maple forest is pretty (prettier than biome o plenty's maple forest biome(s)); I think this biome could use some ground polishing on the ground though, it feels a bit too barren
Lush Desert
Saguaro cacti and thin Yucca trees in a regular desert, basically a more lively desert while still keeping the desert's identity. I wouldn't mind this biome ending up as a full replacement of the vanilla desert
Lush Redwood Forest
Prettier than the regular Redwood Forest proposed by the same mod, I don't have much to say about this specific biome
Outback
an Australia-sponsored biome with acacia bushes and yucca trees, it is not my favorite as I am usually not much of a fan of desert biomes (exceptions can be made)
It isn't the first time I've seen this biome concept within a mod, but it's still nice to see
Rainbow Rainforest
Remember when I stated there was that one cypress-based biome which was great in wetter sections but felt a bit too empty for my taste when above ground ? well this biome being more lush it features a lot more ground decorations and a vibe which makes me hesitate to switch my preferences, as it basically 'solves' my complaints about the other one
Redwood Forest
This one is pretty from above (and when exploring from the treetops) but a bit barren from the ground, it could use more ferns or rock formations to make the terrain more interesting (just like in real life)
Snowy Hemlock Forest
Another Hemlock-adding biome, interesting both from the treetops and from the hillier grounds in terms of travel, but with added snow
Volcanic Island
Just like how real-life islands are more often than created by volcanoes in the first place, this one is too, with the volcanic rock worldgen feature pulling lava from an underground lake; I think the volcanic rock blocks look really good, especially the dark green/black mossy ones, they can make for pretty buildings

Unlike Traverse, this mod doesn't have the "lack of ground decorations" issue I mentioned, and while the soil is still pretty uniform in each area, there's more custom shrubs and cacti participating in making the global terrain more lively.
However, the biome replacement system makes it so many of the naturally-generating biomes from this mod appear in smaller spaces (which is great if you want the biomes to be better ingrained within vanilla environments, but sucks a bit when trying to explore only one for longer; I would recommend selecting large biomes for the worldgen if you want to have fun within them more).
I would also like it more if the custom trees added by the mod had more utility outside of a decorative wood set (more unique things to do with the cypress/yucca trees for example ?), but for a vanilla-style biome mod which does not aim to add thousands of things, it adds things well and I am looking forward to the mod's future, hoping it will get even more interesting content updates.
I would like to mention that some biomes (mainly the oasis , but the sakura forest too) couldn't be force-located for some reason, it could be because they aren't implemented in 26.1.2 yet ? or maybe they are just very rare; Anyways I decided not to mention them in the biome list, you can check the mod's page for more information about them anyways.

In conclusion

I quite like this mod's looks and this mod's biome style, even if many are ideas I've witnessed before already (some better than here).
This mod has its own little wiki, having pages for each biomes listing the sources of inspirations and content/intent. There isn't much in terms of config option outside the ability to enable/disable each biome (which is already quite great to avoid overlapping content with other biome mods).
To me, this mod is even better than 1.12 Traverse, as not only does it features new biomes to integrate within your world, but many of them are actually interesting to traverse.

I always prefer a mod with fewer biomes over one with more but which aren't interesting/distinct enough to observe and walk through, this mod while being smaller than many is worth using.
Just like Traverse, this mod also has a reforged version which can be interesting for forge-based modpacks.

I have played the 1.12 version the most but have only very recently tried again the most recent version on the base Traverse mod; since it seems they are two different uploads with varying content I will rate them both individually; I have also just tried the 1.20.1 version of Traverse Reforged to confirm a few things

What is it ?

A fork of a biome-adding mod which aims to stay true to vanilla Minecraft as it features few new biomes with little to no new blocks;
Most of the biomes being added remind me of pre-beta 1.8 environments.

What does it offer ?

New biomes to explore added to the vanilla worldgen, which feel closer to older now removed biome concepts such as with the oak forests (here as the woodlands) , the seasonal forest (autumnal woods, now most unique, featuring new blocks/trees) and the shrubland (now as desert shrubland) ;
Most of them are actually ideas inspired by another older mod called Extra Biomes, which have been implemented in recent versions.
Short Biome list (found on the mod page too) : Autumnal Woods , Coniferous Forest , Desert Shrubland , Flatlands , Lush Swamp , Snowy Coniferous Forest , Woodlands

It doesn't really have any major issue (none that I have noticed at least), outside of the fact that making custom biomes or even dimensions using vanilla materials has been done time and time again using datapacks in modern versions of the game, which means that this mod while certainly Good Enough is not really doing anything exceptional.
One flaw I have noticed (and that is even more apparent now) is the lack of decorations. Many biome mods come with either larger terrain modifications or more smaller-scale improvements like the presence of more ferns/tallgrass/bushes/rocks or more unique patterns for their soil and it seems this biome mod keeps the ground somewhat barren making them feel less interesting to traverse through compared to many other biome mods.

Unlike the review on regular Traverse which won't take into account 1.12 at all, this one will here :
In 1.12, Traverse used to have a larger biome variety (Traverse 1.12 being no longer available outside of this fork and possibly others, this is why I only mention it here)
Old Biome list here :
Autumnal Woods , Mini Jungle , Woodlands , Meadow , Lush Swamp , Red Desert , Coniferous Forest , Badlands , Mountainous Desert , Rocky Plateau , Forested Hills , Birch Forested Hills , Autumnal Wooded Hills , Cliffs , Glacier , Glacier Spikes , Snowy Coniferous Forest , Lush Hills , Desert Shrubland , Arid Highland , Thicket , Rocky Plains

Not only that, but despite these biomes not reaching their fullest potential in terms of details in my opinion, they still end up having much more depth than the ones in recent versions, and considering the lower competition for biome-adding mods in 1.12 (basically only Biomes o' plenty in terms of equivalent mods in a somewhat vanilla wordgen style as of writing this, though more may arise in the future, remember to check the 1.12 Modding Coalition's discord server for this kind of news) as well as the lower amount of decor in vanilla 1.12, I would dare to say that Traverse was better in 1.12 than now;
This fork was aiming to recreate Traverse for forge accurately, which means the recent versions of it face the same issues I've mentioned up there (which were basically copy-pasted from my Traverse review).

In conclusion

This mod can serve some purposes, but is outshined by plenty of worldgen datapacks and current mods in recent versions at least (such as Environmental, Regions Unexplored, Terralith...).
There is a wiki giving more information about each biomes added, and you can decide in the configs which biomes appear (even if you cannot do much more).
Finally, in 1.12, this mod is actually very good, adding even more biomes which are often larger and more interesting to look at from the ground, but since it is a loss-of-content situation I'm going to go with the same rating as the Traverse review I've made (because in recent versions it is the same situation).

I have played the 1.12 version the most but have only very recently tried again its most recent version; since it seems they are two different uploads with varying content I will rate them both individually

What is it ?

A biome-adding mod which aims to stay true to vanilla Minecraft as it features few new biomes with little to no new blocks;
Most of the biomes being added remind me of pre-beta 1.8 environments.

What does it offer ?

New biomes to explore added to the vanilla worldgen, which feel closer to older now removed biome concepts such as with the oak forests (here as the woodlands) , the seasonal forest (autumnal woods, now most unique, featuring new blocks/trees) and the shrubland (now as desert shrubland) ;
Most of them are actually ideas inspired by another older mod called Extra Biomes, which have been implemented in recent versions.
(Short Biome list (found on the mod page too) : Autumnal Woods , Coniferous Forest , Desert Shrubland , Flatlands , Lush Swamp , Snowy Coniferous Forest , Woodlands )

It doesn't really have any major issue (none that I have noticed at least), outside of the fact that making custom biomes or even dimensions using vanilla materials has been done time and time again using datapacks in modern versions of the game, which means that this mod while certainly Good Enough is not really doing anything exceptional.
One flaw I have noticed (and that is even more apparent now) is the lack of decorations. Many biome mods come with either larger terrain modifications or more smaller-scale improvements like the presence of more ferns/tallgrass/bushes/rocks or more unique patterns for their soil and it seems this biome mod keeps the ground somewhat barren making them feel less interesting to traverse through compared to many other biome mods.

In conclusion

This mod can serve some purposes, but is outshined by plenty of worldgen datapacks and current mods in recent versions at least (such as Environnemental, Regions Unexplored, Terralith...).
There is a wiki giving more information about each biomes added, and you can decide in the configs which biomes appear (even if you cannot do much more).
I will check Terrestria for the first time afterwards, to see if it is a similar cake with extra modded materials or something more out of the ordinary.
Traverse seems to be much different in 1.12 (as I remember seeing more interesting environments than in this iteration; it seems to be a separate upload from modern Traverse, so I will take the time to note it separately).

What is it ?

A mod adding mobs which could have been, but were never truly allowed into the game as others took their place instead;
It features a close interpretation of each mob vote contestants who previously lost , alongside structures and extra items.

What does it offer ?

Mobs taken straight up from the various mob votes, with one or two extra features to go with some of them.

I will talk below about my thoughts on all the creatures added by this mod (from most recent mob vote to oldest) :

The Crab :
An ambient mob, which can leave a large claw after his death, which can be used to make a reaching potion to get extra range for both combat and mining/building

The Tuff Golem :
Acts as a way to display items through a mob. It does what you expect it to
The Rascal :
A creature that you have to find three times inside a mineshaft in order to get a bundled reward.
Specific issues with rascal -> when used in combination with mods adding their own custom mobs to mineshafts, the rascals are often the only ones actually witnessed there (I have noticed that when using Alex's mobs, which has its lot of issues, it seems I'm forced to make the ghostly creatures appear in general caves if I want to see them alongside rascals within the same pack)

The Glare :
A way to know a place is too dark to prevent night monsters from appearing, it's about it in terms of use for this mob
The Copper Golem :
This one is a bit of a special case as Minecraft brought them back in very recent versions with a different chest-sorting behavior;
Here they act as redstone randomizers, randomly pressing copper buttons around them while oxidizing slowly over time (they can be found within custom village structures as fully oxidized statues)

The Moobloom :
A flower-planting cow. On the side, this mob is linked to the addition of a new decorative flower (the buttercup) and a beekeeper villager profession, which buys some flowers and sell honey in various forms
The Iceologer :
I used to think they made him too resilient, but I've just tested the last 1.21 version of the mod and it seems they decided to reduce its health, I think it's better this way especially considering that it made previous fights with him feel slugish.
That said I still personally don't really like that they decided on keeping the Minecraft Dungeons artstyle instead of readapting it for Minecraft's, it feels a bit too smooth/bland compared to the other mobs, but maybe that's just me, and I really don't like that it has an instant-freeze attack which can't be avoided at all. On death they give a totem of freezing, which is just a totem of undying variant with slight differences

The Mauler :
A neutral creature only hostile towards small animals, they can be given magical items to eat which can be turned into experience on their death or if you use glass bottles on them
The Wildfire :
A Nether mini boss concept which never got to exist (in the main game that is), added in his own structure instead of the nether fortress it was supposedly going to be added to originally, this creature has a close quarters area attack (a groundpound which can push you into the lava collumns in its arena), can shoot fireballs and summon blazes to call for help (but not too often as some other mods do); Killing him grants you fragments of his crown, that you can be crafted back into its original form to get it for yourself (grants fire resistance, which goes down rapidly after taking a bath in lava similarly to the turtle shell underwater; Works a bit less though, since being on fire is a state which tends to linger a bit even after getting out of fire-damaging areas).
Making it so the Wildfire's shields get slowly removed as you naturally fight it instead of granting him Minecraft Dungeons-like shield which need to be broken first before you can deal any damage makes the fight more smooth (serving more as an indicator of how far you're into the battle instead), which I honestly prefer and makes this wildfire one of my favorite "nether knight" concept

The Illusioner :
Another special case, as it was never even proposed as a mob vote candidate but was discarded due to technical constraints, the one added by this mob is heavily inspired by its Minecraft Dungeons incarnation in its looks and the way it creates actual clones instead of fake mob renders, I feel like Minecraft could actually add the illusioner this way in the base game if they ever made an update for him; He has his own totem variant called the Totem of Illusion, which is a modified totem of undying, meant to trigger in battle to trick your enemy when you get cornered

In conclusion

I think this mod is honestly decent even if it certainly feels a bit generic in terms of the additions added to some of the mobs; outside of that, it does what you would expect from it, and kept improving over time.
Edit : The configs are quite nice lol, don't remember why I forgot to even mention them, I again wish you could configure illusioner and iceologer waves with more precision than just a yes/no answer to their presence within raids.
I personally don't think adding a custom structure for the Iceologer nor Wildfire was necessary as they would work better as naturally-spawning mobs within vanilla environments I feel, but that could just be the way I see it.

please ignore that I forgot about the Zombie Horse

What is it ?

Adds a new sorcerer to raids, which is an alternate witch-like illager which doesn't gain the witches's healer AI when present in raids, and can more or less passively summon sun-immune undeads .

What does it offer ?

Just one mob : the Sorcerer illager, which can attack you with dangerous potions during raids while summoning fast zombified pillagers on the side.
The potions he throws are thrown quickly and fast, which makes it harder to dodge them , but that's kind of the point : he is meant to be a more aggressive potion-thrower than the witch.

I have nothing of note to add in terms of issues except the fact that just adding this mod to an existing could cause issues if other mods are loaded (tried to install it on a previous world filled with other raider mods, it crashed my game and corrupted the world, but it works without issues in previously-vanilla worlds).

In conclusion

This mob is a bit annoying to deal with, but it seems somewhat intended (that said with the witch you could spam-attack her to prevent her from throwing potions as she will keep trying to heal, here there really isn't much of a strategy to prevent his attacks).
I find him to look decent, even if he isn't animated or anything crazy but there is no visual issue coming out of this mod, plus his yellow-ish look makes him stand out more.
To me it's good enough, but could absolutely be improved upon to make the concept of an illager magician more interesting than just a more dangerous witch, even if this role works within the context of raids (+ the random crash certainly doesn't help).

What is it ?

This mods focuses on a new weapon called the magical scepter , which is used by the new sorcerer (illager) entity.

What does it offer ?

A singular hostile mob , sounding and looking quite similar to MC Dungeon's illusioner, attacking using the magical scepter and flees when you get too close.
Considering how the illusioner isn't found in the base game, and that there isn't a vanilla wizard which is focused on attacking directly (the evoker being more of a summoner) I believe this mob fits in the game and works well as a new night monster too.

The second addition of this mod is a magic wand, which can be found in the old cabin of the sorcerer and after combining it with lapis-lazulis will turn into an arcane scepter to be used to extract your collected experience back into bottles .
The mod also features a basic spell which can be obtained by combining the empty scepter with both one lapis-lazuli and one brown mushroom (or rarely by killing the sorcerer), which allows to perform a small magic missile attack when attacking and a quick resistance buff for defense; this magical scepter can then be infused by being attacked by other mobs, which will switch the basic spell for a different one.
Most other spells the mod features by default both contain a straightforward projectile attack and a basic potion effect buff (even if two custom effects have been added by the mod), but an important thing to note is that the mod encourages the creation of custom spells by making datapacks , which could probably go further (I don't know and have yet to try making my own datapacks, therefore I have not tested this feature).

I'm a bit surprised to not see this mob take part in raids ?
edit of the 6th of September 2026 : he does appear in raids, actually
how did I even miss that did I play the wrong version last time ? Maybe I was just in easy difficulty or smth, idk what happened last time

In conclusion

Well first I would like to add that I was pleasantly-surprised to notice the presence of an official wiki for a mod this small and simple in terms of content (I would prefer if the way to use and infuse the staff with the various mob attacks was made more obvious in game, without the need to look for the wiki even if I'm glad it's there still);
I would still like to mention the fact that there are advancements to help with this mod's content
Anyways it's quite nice to have a detailed wiki on the side, especially since this mod is made much more interesting by the possibility to make your own custom content for it by using datapacks, so having examples and a bit of a tutorial is interesting and a useful addition.

It's a nice mod if you only go by the actual accessible content (even if a bit short), it has some potential for modpacks.

What is it ?

A mod which features a bunch of useful gadgets for mapmaking and modpack creation/customization which allow configuration of various things through comprehensive items and GUIs which do not require you to leave the game at any point. Mostly useful in creative mode

What does it offer ?

Mapmaking and modpack customization tools , which can be used to tweak entity equipments/mounts/persistence, force mobs to infight, make custom potion combinations and configure mob spawners;

Here's a list of possible things you can do using this mod :

-Make a custom villager using the villager trade editor and spawn him again somewhere else
-Add a description and tweak vanilla attributes on an item
-Make an invulnerable, silent and invisible creeper which can see you 75 blocks away and has the same drops as a zombie
-Make a splash potion with the color of your choice of both jump boost and instant damage with a somewhat infinite duration and no particles then throw it on a mob
-Save a customized zombie who is named Jerry and is wearing a dirt block on its head into a spawn egg to make endless copies of him
-Configure a spawner to make it activated when a player is 5 blocks away from it and can spawn periodically hordes of zombie pigmans and cows in a 100 block radius
-Save an entity into a tiny spawner which will conserve most of its data, turning the block back into a mob when a survival/adventure player is near
-Copy the NBT of an item or mob to save it for later use
-Make two stacks of stray and have each one target one from the other stack (has to be done one by one)

I like the way this mod is presented to the player and find the GUI very intuitive (I have not found any issues with the performances);
Only nitpick I have is that every time you use the entity editor on a mob and get to the tab with a wrench it seems to automatically reset the vanilla loot table, which means I have to add it again; thankfully I just have to do it once then save the mob in a custom egg and it's done.

In conclusion

This simple mod is a very useful one , I have been using it in creating recurrent complex custom structures as it allows me to easily prevent mob from despawning or place mounted entities in tiny spawners to make sure recurrent complex saves them right.

While probably made with 1.12 map making in mind, it is a very powerful tool in modpack making , that I will keep recommending.

If you are looking for alternatives/more recent versions of the mod I have yet to find one, but Mob Battle allows you to tweak mob equipment/make custom mounts/save custom eggs, while being better at making custom mob infighting at the same time (but doesn't feature deeper entity tweaks, you'll have to look for mods like Dynamic In-Game NBT Editor , among others that I don't know of which are probably even better).

Remember to check the Modpack Customization Tool feature tag for more mods like these, and to suggest it for any mod which might make modpack creation easier.