MODIFYING YOUR SM WILL GET YOU A SOFTBAN.

You can use Souls of X as they still increase your SM. You can even give
yourself 999999999999 souls and the game won't give a shit unless you directly
modify soul memory. Changing your current souls does not even affect SM so you can
be SM 0 and be maxed out and the game won't care.

You won't get banned for having +10 weapons or armor that can only be raised to
+5, however, they share the same stats as +5 ones anyway. Anything above +10 will
get you banned and crash your game unless you use a LUA script that keeps you from
crashing. Still gets softbanned.

Modifying movesets won't get you softbanned (fear the Greatsword with the
rapier R1s)

Adding items won't get you softbanned either, even online WITH THE EXCEPTION OF
DLC ITEMS YOU HAVEN'T PAID FOR YET. Tested this on my cousin's copy family shared
since he hasn't bought DLCs yet. Added puzzling stone sword and two weeks later it
was bunned. Giving yourself reskins is fine.

Directly modifying your stats changes your SL when you relog but does not get
you softbanned at all, so if you die to someone while having max SL it'll fuck
their SM up and that character is basically max tier SM now.

Invading as a host will NOT get you softbanned, don't be a douche and kill
their NPCs, though.

Action Result
Changing NG Status Invalid Data Message [1]
Warping to an Unlocked Bonfire No Warning [!]
Changing Character Name No Warning
Altering Player Stats No Warning
Changing Time Played Invalid Data Message [1]
Altering Attributes Invalid Data Message [1]
Changing Hollowing No Warning
Unlocking Gestures Invalid Data Message [1]
Altering Appearance Invalid Data Message [2]
Spawning in Spells No Warning [!]
Spawning in Boss Souls Invalid Data Message [3]
Spawning in Weapons No Warning [!]
Spawning in Storm Ruler Invalid Data Message [1]
Spawning in Armor No Warning [!]
Spawning in Rings No Warning [!]
Spawning in Crafting Materials Invalid Data Message [1]
Spawning in Estus Items Invalid Data Message [1]
Spawning in Covenant Items Invalid Data Message [3]
Spawning in Key Items Invalid Data Message [!] [1] [4]
Spawning in Tomes Invalid Data Message [1] [4]
Running Session Info No Warning
[!] Penalization occurred if it was DLC-related before release.
[1] Save must be reverted or deleted
[2] Changes can be undone in CheatEngine, saves do not need to be reverted
[3] No Warning if traded in immediately
[4] Warning persists even if handed in
Keep in mind there was no results up until the ban wave had actually hit. A
majority of the penalizations that were rolled back were related to the early DLC
stuff. I also had three friends with accounts that had 'Invalid Data', the one who
chose to revert their save had the warning cleared up after a week, the other had
their warning become a penalization for not reverting the save and the other was
penalized after their game session for using CheatEngine with the warning (this was
not reverted). It also seems they're repeating their behavior with Dark Souls 2 by
sending out a ban wave the first two weeks of the game's release and a week prior
to the DLC's release.