I have some lockpicks, which I gave to Virgil. I see he has some lockpicking skill and I don't. How do I get him to pick a lock, or in this case open a locked dresser? Thanks

I never understood this either, but the way i did it was to just pick up a second lockpick myself, and attempt to pick it myself

BECAUSE when you try to pick a lock and virgil is in the party, he will go do it for you instead (and actually stop you from doing it)
(Lockpicks can often be found in trashcans if you do not want to invest the money), else it just costs something around 34 gold anyway :)

You also must have the "follower skills" enabled in the game options to do it that way, which is as far as I know the only way. Virgil's lockpicking skill is complete trash too, it's shameful.

It gets quite allright in the higher levels, also you can have Magnus make you that skeleton key thing, which gives +10% (I think its 10%, don't quite remember), which makes virgil's lockpicking quite more potent.

I tend to just have someone with an axe in the party though, axes are great for destroying your way through locked doors etc, as they either take NO damage or reduced damage from hitting objects. Ofcourse if you use this technique on locked chests etc, you run the risk of destroying the equipment inside, so if you're a magician you should REALLY pick up the unlocking cantrip spell (level 2 conveyance)-which is something you propebly want to invest in anyway seeing as teleportation is just so...practical :)