Sorry it took so long...real life has a tendency to hijack you. Anyway, I started a new game and noticed the first "bad" item was in the first dungeon, dropped by one of the 3 arena guards right before the arena with the 2 spiders. It was a sash. I then picked up some leather armor (in the arena) and it was ok, but the leather leggings found in the chest with the battlefield key was bad.
Hopefully, this helps out some...it isn't a battlefield thing, and it does seem that some "placed" items and "random" items are affected.
