Good
+ Flagellant is an excellent class, very fun to play and gives much-needed Bleed DOT, which is lacking from the base roster.

+ New non-Curse trinkets are very nice

+ The enemies are interesting to fight, having them get stronger after certain attacks adds a lot of depth to how to tackle fights and adds a sense of urgency.

+ District system is good, gives late-game relic sinks and more decision-making with town development, as well as more uses for some weaker things.

Middling
(this also includes things that are questionable but I don't actually consider bad in a vacuum, though they often become obnoxious combined with other things)
~ I do appreciate the variety

~ Almost every CC enemy has a stress attack, or just has free stress infliction on actual attacks, making stress management vastly more difficult.

~ The Crocodile boss is practically a troll boss, having a low-warning attack that can deal upwards of 20 damage to your entire, Apprentice-Difficulty party, likely immediately bringing most of them to death's door. With proper management this isn't an issue since you can prevent it, but it's a really bad "haha gotcha" for new players.

~ I have yet to encounter The Fanatic, I won't pass judgement on him

~ I'm unsure if the Cocoons replace normal curios or are added on top, if they're added on top then ignore this, if they replace then treat this as a Bad because oh my god there are so many of them and they are completely useless unless you are truly desperate for Blood.

Bad
- Crimson Curse is potentially the most obnoxious game mechanic I have experienced in a very long time. Incurable, permanent disease that debuffs hero stats significantly no matter what you do, causes stress events constantly, causes your heroes to attack each other constantly, etc. It's basically like permanently being Afflicted with a milder version of every Affliction combined, and then you can get Afflicted on top of it which makes a hero completely nonfunctional. It's so common that 3/4 of your roster will end up infected unless you dismiss heroes with it, which puts a massive strain on your roster and funding anyway. You're even punished for treating it because Bloodlust has a bunch of potentially serious negative effects it also can cause, forcing you to either deal with those or deal with the constant stress bombs from Craving.

- The CC enemies appearing in other regions trashes party comps in a way you can't really account or compensate for. They're all extremely resilient to Blight and Debuffs (and moderately resistant to stuns), greatly weakening those abilities because any given encounter could be replaced with CC enemies. No skills or quirks give bonuses against CC enemies either, as they're a unique type. They also almost all have super high dodge, meaning you need either dodge reduction skills or very high accuracy.

- CC enemies are extremely fast, almost guaranteed to go first, making it even more difficult to avoid getting your entire party infected, and partially nullifying the sense of urgency and depth I mentioned as a good thing because enemies will always go so fast you can't take them out before they become a problem.

- Gatekeepers are so difficult to actually kill before they inflict a free 20+ stress on your entire party and then leave that it's infuriating.

- CC greatly diminishes the usefulness of the Shieldbreaker and Plague Doctor (and somewhat the Grave Robber), as now you can get heavily blight-resistant enemies anywhere.

The thing that finally pushed me to write this up was that I had an absolutely horrible apprentice-level dungeon venture that was completely caused by CC. Very first encounter was CC enemies, only one path so I can't retreat unless I abandon mission. Gatekeeper goes first with their obscene speed, immediately inflicts 20 stress and wrecks my party order, making me unable to do anything with two of my units. Two mosquitos inflict CC on two of my party members instantly. I kill one of them and Bleed the standing enemy with 20% protection (I'll remember names eventually). I miss a Bleed and Dodge debuff on the Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper goes first on round 2, immediately flees for free 20 stress on whole party and filling the field with more mosquitos. Entire party gets CC'd, Plague Doctor gets hyper-focused to death's door (thankfully doesn't die...), Plague Doctor also Afflicted despite coming in at zero stress.

Second encounter. Leper attacks teammates for 8+ damage two turns in a row, then passes turn on the third turn. Cascade of CC stress events causing my entire party to gain over 30 stress in two turns despite not being hit with any stress attacks. I flee battle and abandon mission before plague doctor has a heart attack and dies. Dismiss entire party because they're all level 0 or 1 and all have CC.

Could I have played this better? Almost certainly, I don't claim to be good at this game. But this still felt like a completely overwhelming combination of events I couldn't have "properly" reacted to, all caused by elements of this DLC that I already didn't like.

Conclusion

Buy this DLC on discount. You can disable Crimson Curse as a mechanic with mods which makes the rest of the DLC tolerable, or use mods to make CC far less annoying and more feature-rich. If you just want the Flagellant and/or Districts you can also do that. Do NOT use the full package for a first playthrough, only use Flagellant and Districts if anything. I'd recommend doing your second run on standard difficulty, and then drop back down to easy for your first run with this DLC if you do intend to use the entire thing.

Good + Flagellant is an excellent class, very fun to play and gives much-needed Bleed DOT, which is lacking from the base roster. + New non-Curse trinkets are very nice + The enemies are interesting to fight, having them get stronger after certain attacks adds a lot of depth to how to tackle fights and adds a sense of urgency. + District system is good, gives late-game relic sinks and more decision-making with town development, as well as more uses for some weaker things. Middling (this also includes things that are questionable but I don't actually consider bad in a vacuum, though they often become obnoxious combined with other things) ~ I do appreciate the variety ~ Almost every CC enemy has a stress attack, or just has free stress infliction on actual attacks, making stress management vastly more difficult. ~ The Crocodile boss is practically a troll boss, having a low-warning attack that can deal upwards of 20 damage to your entire, Apprentice-Difficulty party, likely immediately bringing most of them to death's door. With proper management this isn't an issue since you can prevent it, but it's a really bad "haha gotcha" for new players. ~ I have yet to encounter The Fanatic, I won't pass judgement on him ~ I'm unsure if the Cocoons replace normal curios or are added on top, if they're added on top then ignore this, if they replace then treat this as a Bad because oh my god there are so many of them and they are completely useless unless you are truly desperate for Blood. Bad - Crimson Curse is potentially the most obnoxious game mechanic I have experienced in a very long time. Incurable, permanent disease that debuffs hero stats significantly no matter what you do, causes stress events constantly, causes your heroes to attack each other constantly, etc. It's basically like permanently being Afflicted with a milder version of every Affliction combined, and then you can get Afflicted on top of it which makes a hero completely nonfunctional. It's so common that 3/4 of your roster will end up infected unless you dismiss heroes with it, which puts a massive strain on your roster and funding anyway. You're even punished for treating it because Bloodlust has a bunch of potentially serious negative effects it also can cause, forcing you to either deal with those or deal with the constant stress bombs from Craving. - The CC enemies appearing in other regions trashes party comps in a way you can't really account or compensate for. They're all extremely resilient to Blight and Debuffs (and moderately resistant to stuns), greatly weakening those abilities because any given encounter could be replaced with CC enemies. No skills or quirks give bonuses against CC enemies either, as they're a unique type. They also almost all have super high dodge, meaning you need either dodge reduction skills or very high accuracy. - CC enemies are extremely fast, almost guaranteed to go first, making it even more difficult to avoid getting your entire party infected, and partially nullifying the sense of urgency and depth I mentioned as a good thing because enemies will always go so fast you can't take them out before they become a problem. - Gatekeepers are so difficult to actually kill before they inflict a free 20+ stress on your entire party and then leave that it's infuriating. - CC greatly diminishes the usefulness of the Shieldbreaker and Plague Doctor (and somewhat the Grave Robber), as now you can get heavily blight-resistant enemies anywhere. The thing that finally pushed me to write this up was that I had an absolutely horrible apprentice-level dungeon venture that was completely caused by CC. Very first encounter was CC enemies, only one path so I can't retreat unless I abandon mission. Gatekeeper goes first with their obscene speed, immediately inflicts 20 stress and wrecks my party order, making me unable to do anything with two of my units. Two mosquitos inflict CC on two of my party members instantly. I kill one of them and Bleed the standing enemy with 20% protection (I'll remember names eventually). I miss a Bleed and Dodge debuff on the Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper goes first on round 2, immediately flees for free 20 stress on whole party and filling the field with more mosquitos. Entire party gets CC'd, Plague Doctor gets hyper-focused to death's door (thankfully doesn't die...), Plague Doctor also Afflicted despite coming in at zero stress. Second encounter. Leper attacks teammates for 8+ damage two turns in a row, then passes turn on the third turn. Cascade of CC stress events causing my entire party to gain over 30 stress in two turns despite not being hit with any stress attacks. I flee battle and abandon mission before plague doctor has a heart attack and dies. Dismiss entire party because they're all level 0 or 1 and all have CC. Could I have played this better? Almost certainly, I don't claim to be good at this game. But this still felt like a completely overwhelming combination of events I couldn't have "properly" reacted to, all caused by elements of this DLC that I already didn't like. Conclusion Buy this DLC on discount. You can disable Crimson Curse as a mechanic with mods which makes the rest of the DLC tolerable, or use mods to make CC far less annoying and more feature-rich. If you just want the Flagellant and/or Districts you can also do that. Do NOT use the full package for a first playthrough, only use Flagellant and Districts if anything. I'd recommend doing your second run on standard difficulty, and then drop back down to easy for your first run with this DLC if you do intend to use the entire thing.