I'm developing an RPG and I'm at the point where I need to start building an enemy database. There's a couple challenges associated with this and a few solutions I've been considering.

Here's what I need to do in my enemy database:

I have two primary enemy classes I need to represent data about:

A base enemy class that includes the follow:

Base Stats
Status Resistance Table
Elemental Resistance Table
Steal Table
Drop Table
Level
Unique ID
Base XP
AI Hook
Name
Display Name

And a derived class that adds the ability to add equipment, adding the following fields:

Main Weapon
Secondary Weapon/Equipment
Armor
Accessories

I may add additional fields or additional classes in the future if it makes sense. I've considered two possible formats to database enemies.

XML Files

I'd basically do it like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Enemies>
  <Enemy name="Red Dragon" type="BaseEnemy" level="56" displayname="Red Dragon">
    <Stats HP="55000" MP="2500" SP="2500" Strength="212" Vitality="125" Magic="200" Spirit="162" Skill="111" Speed="109" Evasion="100" MgEvasion="100" Accuracy="100" Luck="55"/>
    <StatusResistances>
      <Resistance name="Sleep" value="100" />
      <Resistance name="Stop" value="100" />
    </StatusResistances>
    <ElementResistances>
      <Resistance name="Fire" value="75" />
    </ElementResistances>
    <LootTable>
      <Item name="Elixir" rate="0.03" count="1"/>
    </LootTable>
    <DropTable>
      <Item name="Elixir" rate="0.03" count="1"/>
    </DropTable>
    <AIScript value="BasicBehaviour.py" />
    <BaseXP value="4800"/>
  </Enemy>
  <Enemy name="Gaverick 1" type="HumanoidEnemy" level="33" displayname="Gaverick">
  <!--Same Stuff as above here-->
    <Equipment>
      <Weapon name="Dark Eclipse"/>
      <Armor name="Terra Defense"/>
      <Accessory name="Ribbon"/>
    </Equipment>
  </Enemy>
</Enemies>

Advantages:

• Easy to extend if I need to add/rearrange parameters
• easy to assign default values
• I already have an XML parser (pugixml) included for config files, tiled maps and resource description loading

Disadvantages:

• potentially slow (my database will likely hit several hundred enemies)
• can't query for arbitrary enemies, so will likely need to keep all enemies in memory.
• This would mean I need to restart the game to load changed enemy data as well

SQLite

For this, I'd basically make a table with columns representing all the data I'd need and leave the unnecessary fields empty

Advantages

• Arbitrary querying can keep unnecessary enemy data out of memory
• Feels more structured
• Smaller file size

Disadvantages

• More difficult to extend/rearrange parameter orders
• Unnecessary overhead to to unused fields
• Will need to write a database interface wrapper for sqlite

With this in mind I was curious on getting some outside experience on what other people have done. I may be thinking about this totally wrong, and if so, please suggest an alternative to the two possibilities I have here.

Additionally, any suggestions on how to improve either of these possibilities would be appreciated. Really, I just want to know if I'm on the right track.

I'm open to using any free library and am already incorporating boost