The method to apply potion effects is defined in EntityLivingBase, so if you call World#getEntitiesWithinAABB with EntityLivingBase.class, you can apply the potion effects to them.
World#getEntitiesWithinAABB(Entity.class, new AxisAlignedBB(x,y,z,x+10,y+10,z+10) will return every entity inside a 10x10x10 box and which inherents the Entity class.
Forge recently had a breaking change which causes mods to crash. One of your mods is not updated to a version of Forge after the change.
Unfortunately, the crash doesn't say which mod it is, so you'll have to take mods out to see which is the crashing one.