A couple other people have also had that reaction from enemy NPCs when returning to human form and attacking all in one motion.
With most items, the properties are set once you run your cursor over them or hit alt. For items placed directly into your inventory, you need to move the item it set the properties. I got a very nice ring from Verlat, but decided to save and see what else I could get. After a few tries it was apparent I wasn't getting anything better, so re-loaded to find random stats in my first ring's save. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" /> It took awhile re-loading again, but I got something comparable to the first ring.
