Joining the Companions? I want to RP a Bosmer thief, and bring in his inner "beast". However, i do not want to join a warrior guild, b/c it ruins RPing whenever i would walk in Whiterun and hear, i hear you are a new recruit! blah blah.
So far I've only met one werewolf outside of the companions quest and he was strangely bugged and could not attack me or anyone else. It might be possible to get infected by him but I'm not sure it's even possible to test this until that bug is fixed. If you want to give it a shot head down to Falkreath for the Ill met by moonlight quest, maybe you'll have better luck then I have in getting him to do more then stare at things.
The ring had absolutely no effect on a non werewolf. If you are a werewolf then wearing it gives you a second power that you can activate to become a werewolf as long as you are wearing the ring. The power granted by the ring is essentially just a duplicate of beast form with no recharge time and it will not be placed in your power menu if you are not a werewolf.
I hope this clears everything up, and yes you can get the ring without being a werewolf because it is part of a completely different quest that has no connections to the companions.
So far I've only met one werewolf outside of the companions quest and he was strangely bugged and could not attack me or anyone else. It might be possible to get infected by him but I'm not sure it's even possible to test this until that bug is fixed. If you want to give it a shot head down to Falkreath for the Ill met by moonlight quest, maybe you'll have better luck then I have in getting him to do more then stare at things.
Spoiler
I found werewolves in a keep dungeon thing, I forget the exact name of the place but it's patrolled by Silver Hands and is just north of Snowpoint Beacon. If you draw an imaginary lines between Whiterun and Windhelm and Riften and Solitude, it should be right near the intersection of those lines. However, I allowed one there to attack me for a little while and did not contract lycanthropy.