One of my worries with using mods is that it might make the game easier without me realizing it. I wanna know two things: 1: Do you consider the clockwork knights mod to be fairly balanced with vanilla? 2: What other mods do you consider to be acceptable balancewise?
1. It seems pretty balanced as far as I can tell. I haven't played it that much, but the abilities it gives are pretty balanced (the movement skills maybe a bit underpowered, particularly at low levels), and the crafting bonuses aren't enough to craft anything good, but it makes you something like a jack of all trades as far as crafting goes. If you have the ingredients you could make a healing potion, or a weak wand, but no good wands or staves, nor multiple potions. And it's the same for the other two. I'd say it seems pretty balanced 2. I don't want to self-advertise but I've worked hard on making sure that Wind Magic has been pretty balanced.
I can say that I haven't really played with many imbalanced mods. Clockwork Knights is solid, Wind Mage is amazing, and even Le Mod du Zara isn't really anything to be worried about balance-wise. The only complaints I've heard about my mods is that Warlockery might be a bit strong, but that's still in debate. Obviously the Monster Menagerie has some detractors (damn you, Diggle Mage!) but it only adds to the challenge -- that should make you proud. All around, I'd say the community is doing pretty well.
JUST AS PLANNED ...I mean. ...Yeah, actually, I do mean JUST AS PLANNED! (though to be honest if one of my monsters is lolborked and/or unkillable, let me know and I'll make it less so.)
