Sorry for all the noob questions, but I can't help wondering why Virgil insists on wearing his staff when I give him better weapons.
He's watched too much Xena and thinks he's Gabrielle. Well, you can take his staff away manually if you like. Also if you take the staff away and he changes to some other weapon and give back the staff, it's possible he doesn't change back to the staff.
I always dump his staff and give him a Sword of Defense and a shield. This tends to offset his "kill grizzlies by forcing my head down their throats to choke them" battle strategy somewhat.
Low level Virgil is great, I mean, what can be more amusing than damaging weapon to like 1/3 of maximum endurance, destroying own armor and then chopping own head off, all in one battle?
Virgil should keep a Finely Balanced Sword equipped if you give him one of those instead. That's usually what I do as soon as Magnus makes me a few of those. I've never had to take his staff away, but I can see why it would be tempting if, for example, you found something better at the Crash Site and he doesn't seem to want to use it.