I got the "Flute of Fire" as my first item. I was over the moon. Then after thinking about it I would laugh at the thought of my macho cavalier cruising into battle playing the "Flute of Fire" ...the magic faded a bit...I never got anything with extra benefits though...what are some of the "extras" that you've received?
You can get extras for pretty much every skill possible. Even spellcasting
PS: It is not the prestige that makes it deteriorate, but allegedly the amount of times that it has been repaired.
PPS: They normally do not start with benefits. You have to get an adventurer to add them. Quite rare to get the option from a sage, and it normally takes several items and a chunk of gold (around 50 -70 in my experience). It is random what you get. This would be a nice sort of thing to discuss in guilds i suppose.