That is very strange. Before the patch, the problem with quests in the BF was that the quest log entry could sometimes morph into something else, so when you brought the merchants what they asked for, they could want something different, and not recognize that you completed the quest.
The hat was most likely effected by whatever caused a problem with the rest of your stash of loot. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> At some point one of the files in the save game folder that keeps track of your inventory may have become corrupt, and the loss/change of attributes was the game trying to recover from that the next time it needed to read from that part of the file.
Try deleting the files within the dynamic folders (not the folders themselves, though);
'
..\Beyond Divinity\Acts\Act1\Dynamic', '
..\Beyond Divinity\Acts\Act2\Dynamic', etc.
These folders are used as a cache for the game. Files are created / copied there from the save game folder when you load, and written / copied to those folders when you save a game. The files will be re-created as required the next time you start Beyond Divinity. If there was a corrupt file in those folders, deleting the files should fix the problem.
If you saved the game after the problem started, this will probably not help. If you have any recent saves that are ok, you can delete the files in the dynamics folders, load that save, perhaps learn Identify to a higher level (if you don't already have it at level 5), and then check the BF to see if everything remains as it was.
In act 3, the smith in the temple teaches Identify to level 5 (in act 4, Brian in the BF teaches it to level 10).
