how does EXP work in this game?

[Zaxori]

I've come to a point in this game where my summons are 4 levels behind (sans any that I've gathered right after a battle) my leaders and everything I'm fighting is 2-4 levels above my leaders. I need to grind a bit but my summons just get decimated in seconds. How do I make my party equalish? I've notice that some of my summons have been leveled up without me using them but some are higher than others, even though I don't use either of them equally. i can't figure out how the exp is spread.

I think I also may have found a flaw. It seems the enemies are based around peony's level. That would be fine sans the fact that you can never remove her from the party, ever it seems. So she's constantly getting XP but no one can catch up to her, creating this constant deficit in your party of everyone being underleveled.

[Ittrix]

Well, afaik the main source of experience is by winning battles. You get experience based on the battle, and a bonus for losing no units, not killing leaders, and finishing in fewer rounds.
Everyone involved gets the same amount of experience (except the MVP) and everyone in your roster gets that same amount too but slightly diminished.
New talismans or characters level to your highest person.

Smaller exp comes from using assists and attacking. That and spells. Peony does level slightly faster because of this.

If you're really in a bind, the ultimate orbs will level up a talisman who grabs them. Imho, a few levels isn't a huge difference though.

[Zaxori]

5 levels is a pretty big gap. Like I can't think of any other game where this happens unless you intentionally do it.

[Ittrix]

Maybe looking at it, but I commonly ran characters 5 levels lower or more just because they fit the stage better and I never had issues.

[Zaxori]

Ok, you might not, but there are more people than just you who play that may not be able to do such a thing. I mean I'm making it work too but I like being able to attack a stage in several different ways without being limited to one strategy. Having your characters the proper level prevents over use of one set of characters, which is what I'm running into. It's much better to give more options rather than less options. Having all characters equal level is the more open solution.

[Amanozako]

Usually if I had issues with my summons not being strong enough, I switched to a single-element focused scroll build, where I buff everyone with 2 or 3 of the scrolls that buff one (or two, for the dynamo) element(s). I eventually just did only this unless the enemy elemental spread was too even or wide to handle with one element. Those bonus stats sound small, but they're base stats, so they scale up pretty hard.

P.S. Bone Servant is absurd and I'm convinced it's among the top 5 best summons. Iron wall + protector is will save you from all but absurd aoe or utlras. Just be smart about where you face him so when he guards he doesn't jump in front with his back to the enemy.

[Nonaloth]

You phatom hand to get the pink orbs to rise the level of your underleveled talismans.
That is what i do.

[Ittrix]

I mean, it sounds like NG+ is whatcha want. At that point everything should be maxed out so you can kinda just roll with whatever you want.