Giving items to party… effect, benefit, consequences?

[Delmuir]

So, while playing a Necromancer, I've noted that I can give my minions gear. I can't equip it formally like an Alchemists' Golem but I can give it to them.

More so, when they die, I get it back… unless it happens when changing levels. Quite often, when changing levels, a Bone Giants in particular will just disappear along with any gear that I placed on it. Pretty lame…

In addition, I'm not really sure what the point of this is. It does seem to augment their power it's not clear what they can and cannot hold or use. I can give a Bone Giant more than one item to hold and it's not clear what the effect is.

So, anyone have a primer on this? How does it work? Risks? Benefits?

[HousePet]

Probably an accidental feature that doesn't do anything.

[Lyoncet]

I suppose it can help with encumbrance if you want to put extra gear along. Although with the deepen chance it's probably not worth it. Is it possibly a holdover from pre-transmog days? (I only got ToME a few months back so I'm not sure how the game's changed over time.)