I finally mastered the art of getting my enemies to yield, based on a suggestion from someone on this board. Simply sheath your weapon after they drop to their knees and beg and voila! So far it's been working for me in a lot of instances.
Number two! I found out you can harvest ore from stones by equipping your pickaxe and swinging it into the ore deposit. It's pretty neat.
Feel free to add your own little discoveries.