here is a pastebin with the error and crash report: https://pastebin.com/GKphyXbv. it happened while i was walking, i wasn't near a village, but it was a "destroyed", unpopulated one. don't know whether it was caused by this mod or not, but seems like it, even tho i had already been in a village before and interacted with them.

the crash message says:

The game crashed whilst ticking entity
Error: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.util.List.contains(Object)" because "tallestegg.guardvillagers.configuration.GuardConfig.MobBlackList" is null

Please show your config file

have the same issue, did not touch the config files.

["raids and illagers"]
#Illagers In Raids Attack Animals?
"Illagers in raids attack animals?" = false
#Witches Attack Villagers?
"Witches attack villagers?" = true
#This will make Illusioners get involved in raids
"Have Illusioners in raids?" = false
#This makes Illagers run from polar bears, as anyone with common sense would.
"Have Illagers have some common sense?" = true

["mob ai in general"]
#Guards will attack all hostiles with this option
"Guards attack all mobs?" = false
#Guards won't attack mobs in this list if AttackAllMobs is enabled, for example, putting minecraft:creeper in this list will make guards ignore creepers.
"Mob BlackList" = []

["villager stuff"]
"Allow armorers and weaponsmiths repair guard items when down below half durability?" = true
#This will make it so villagers will only be converted into guards if the player has hero of the village
"Make it so players have to have hero of the village to convert villagers into guards?" = false
"Have it so blacksmiths heal golems under 60 health?" = true
"Have it so clerics heal guards and players with hero of the village?" = true
#This makes villagers run from polar bears, as anyone with common sense would.
"Have Villagers have some common sense?" = true

["guard stuff"]
#This makes Guards run from polar bears, as anyone with common sense would.
"Have Guards have some common sense?" = false
#This lets Guards open doors.
"Have Guards open doors?" = true
#This will make guards raise their shields all the time, on default they will only raise their shields under certain conditions
"Have Guards raise their shield all the time?" = false
#This makes guards form a phalanx
"Have guards form a phalanx?" = true
#This will make guards attempt to avoid friendly fire.
"Have guards attempt to avoid firing into other friendlies? (Experimental)" = false
#This is the range in which the guards will be aggroed to mobs that are attacking villagers. Higher values are more resource intensive, and setting this to zero will disable the goal.
#Range: -500.0 ~ 500.0
Range = 50.0
#How much health a guard regenerates.
#Range: -500.0 ~ 500.0
"Guard health regeneration amount" = 1.0
"Allow guard arrows to damage villagers, iron golems, or other guards? The i-frames will still be shown for them but they won't lose any health if this is set to false" = true
"Allow players to give guards stuff only if they have the hero of the village effect?" = false
"Allow players to set guard patrol points only if they have hero of the village" = false
#Range: > -2147483648
"Minimum reputation requirement for guards to give you access to their inventories" = 15

"Mob BlackList" = []

put "" in the brackets, i don't know why it isn't there by default (it should be as i have tested it)

EDIT: this might not work actually

Closing due to inactivity and because this is in 1.18.

If the original poster becomes active again and this issue can be recreated in 1.19 I will reopen this.