I’m currently playing SoZ for the first time and I’ve so far opted to stick to 4-member party. I assumed a smaller party will result in higher-leveled characters, but I’m beginning to doubt it.
Experience rewards come from multiple sources: quest completion, skill use on the overland map, disabling traps, winning random encounters and killing enemies. Killing enemies provides the least experience and I suspect it’s the only source affected negatively by party size. If that is correct not taking cohorts would entail pointlessly gimping yourself.
How does xp relate to party size and is there a meaningful benefit to using a smaller party?