-Is there a way to modify DLC items without actually giving them away with the mod? If not can i disable DLC items while using my mod (Reason: i want to change how weapons work thus don't want DLC weapons that follow different rules to pop up)?
I would expect that you could modify the XML code, but leave the image references the same. Keep the XML for DLC stuff in a separate file from XML for base game stuff, and give two download links - base game mod and extra for DLC. As long as you don't include the model or image files, I would expect that the game will look for the image icon in the default location, and give errors to anyone trying to use the DLC side of the mod without having the DLC content, because they don't have the items being referenced (unless Stardock's gone the route of including the items in the base game and providing something that amounts to an unlock code when you purchase the DLC). My understanding is that you don't necessarily have to have all of the XML for the items you're modding in the same file, as long as you're not trying to overwrite the same things multiple times.
I would suggest that, if you do go this route, that you completely overhaul the DLC item XML anyways (basically, keep the names and change everything else).
-Is there a way to make a magical weapon that isn't elemental in nature? Like the good old D&D +1 weapon?
Yep. You can define your own damage types (look in CoreUnitStats.XML to see how to define these), or you can use UnitStat_Attack_Boost (which provides an additive bonus to the attack of the unit equipped with whatever increases this - see Horses or Warhorses for examples of how to add this; I don't recall for E:FE, but in E:FE:LH this bonus only applies when the unit has a nonzero base physical attacks), though I'm not sure if the attack bonus itself will work on weapons. You can also look around in CoreUnitStats.XML to see if there's a damage type defined in there that isn't really used anywhere. Alternatively, you could have an "enchanted" longsword that has [(longsword attack) + 1] for its Attack score which requires whatever resources you say it needs for it to be produced (so you can require 1 crystal and 5 metal for a +1 longsword of e.g. 15 attack as compared to your normal 14 attack longsword that costs 5 metal). You should also be able to modify unit accuracy in the same way, if you'd rather the enchantment be a more likely to hit kind of thing rather than a hurts more when it hits kind of thing.
For that matter, if it's something defined in CoreUnitStats.XML or a mod version of such, you ought to be able to have a weapon increase (or decrease) that UnitStat - so if I were to make a UnitStat_CreatureType that had some given value for each type of creature I recognized, I could have a weapon that made a unit's UnitStat_CreatureType value be something other than what the normal value was - for instance, an item that forces a specific creature type onto a unit, so if I wanted a cursed sword that made the unit susceptible to the same things that affect undead, I could mess around with the UnitStat modifications until I made the wielder have the same value for UnitStat_CreatureType that I assigned to undead (just remember that this isn't the same way that they did it for the racial types in-game - if you want to do something like this, you need to do a lot of work with the XML defining ways for UnitStat_CreatureType to affect the damage, and unless there's a simple If-Then structure I haven't seen, it may be "easier" to define UnitStat_Undead, UnitStat_Human, UnitStat_Elf, etc for use in creature type damage computations, and make it "1" for something that is the appropriate type and "0" otherwise, because then you can sort of get an If-Then style damage bonus by just multiplying by the value of the appropriate UnitStat, though I'm not certain that this can be done for a weapon except inside of an active ability).
Elemental Forums
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