How does XP distribution work?

[Euphoria]

Title pretty sums up my question. I always run parties where all the characters have the same XP penalty. I like my characters to all be the same level, and at the same degree of advancement...just my style.

 

I have been very irked to find that certain character slots always seem to fall behind in XP. At first I thought characters were being awarded more XP for either killing an enemy, or doing a greater proportion of damage. I began altering who did most of the killing to attempt to "catch" those character up in the XP race. This seems to have no impact though, and those characters are just always behind. Very strange. Then I tried changing postions around, which is how I encountered the BUG I describe in my other post titled Horrible Bug. Very frustrating confluence of game effects.

 

Yes, I know I am OCD.

 

EDIT: btw...they did not initially fall behind in XP from dying and not being alive while XP was awarded. I play so that no one ever dies (ie. will reload if a death occurs and play it over till I get it right).