>Does +dam and +hit eq affect you when in form?

They do not. Saves, stat bonuses and hp/mp/mv bonuses carry over in form. What shows up in your affects (type affects in game) will also carry over in form. Gear for more saves if spells are causing you trouble, for more stat bonuses if maledicts hamper your action but mostly, gear for hp. Hitroll and damroll are completely irrelevant when gearing a shifter.

>Are the forms you get completely random at each tier or is
>there something you should do to get different/better ones?

Forms are mostly random, but some tier 2 forms exclude similar tier 1 forms. What you can do manually is picking foci and sticking with what you get.