Playing P/S/C/T, haven't chosen Light or Dark yet (not that far ahead). Right now, everyone is Lvl. 15. However, while the S is ready to train to Lvl. 18, the other three are able to train to Lvl. 20. I've always wondered why such a startling differentiation between the classes on this point. Or does the S going unconscious too much have anything to do with it? (I had Preservation on everyone, and so people kept getting knocked out by Wromthrax with horrifying negative HP that P or C was able to revive.) It does not seem like it would matter, but I am not sufficiently familiar with the internal mechanics of how this works.

And would this change depending on which quests have been completed? I've completed the first promotion quest for all but the S, so would that be significant?

What is the learning skill of each character?

I think this would be the main factor. For completing the promotion quests, the specific class gets a nice bonus to XP (I believe everyone gets XP, but the target class gets more).

I thought of that. They were (at the time I posted) all at Skill Level 1. I have since raised the Sorc to 2, with the others remaining at 1. Hopefully he'll catch up. That makes sense, as the others have (now) completed the initial promotion quests. The Sorc's is next.

Differences in Learning skill level apply. Remember that Learning mastery (Expert/Master/GM) provide a multiplier to the skill level, so 10 points at GM Learning gives a 50% bonus iirc, while 10 points at basic learning gives a 19% bonus.

A character that is unconcious, dead, or stoned will not gain experience if a monster dies; the experience will be split among the living party members. I believe paralyzed characters still gain experience, even though they can't act. It doesn't matter how much damage is dealt to the monster while a character is dead, only who is alive once the monster hits zero hp.

The biggest difference is the class promotions. As rmeakins said, class promotions provide a party wide experience reward, but each character who is actually promoted (not just Honorary) gets an experience bonus on top of that. This is almost certainly the reason for the major difference in your case, assuming you haven't kill too many high XP monsters while party members were dead. If you want to keep experience roughly even, go ahead and boost the others to Learning skill level 2 as well. Once the Sorc gets promoted, he should be at parity with the others.

i think in at least some might and magic games you got xp on a character that last hit the monster? assuming sorc is weaker early game that could be why, of course the unconscious thing also fucks sorcs early game.

You advanced by 20 levels in less than ten days? Nice! How much have you been playing? Or does it get easier later on due to skills?

I've never actually gone that far as I kept losing my saves, so I usually spent hours just on the first few temples/locations and never made it more far than the bandits hideout, for which I was underleveled at the time.

Once you get into the 30s, things really start opening up as long as you spent your skill points decently well. You can knock out a lot of quests pretty quickly if you have access to the Master level spells.

That's pretty much how it worked. This game seems to be taking less real time than most I remember, and I'm almost done (just trained to level 55).

It also seems to be taking more game time than usual. My longest recorded game-time (probably my third game ever) is about 4-3/4 years (taking into account 12 28-day months), and my shortest just over two years. I'm closer to the latter than the former, but it just feels longer.

On the other hand, with only three quests left, I can probably finish without further leveling-up, which will put me at the lowest level yet at victory (my previous lowest average level is 71.0, while the highest is 79.5).

I tend to finish MM7 in under two game years, but I'm pretty careful about planning trips to minimize time spent traversing between regions.

I generally clock in with levels in the 70's or 80's by end game, but my recent play through ended mid-50's. I had a Monk, Ranger, Knight, and Archer, and I realized there wasn't anything in the Evenmorn Islands that I really needed, so I skipped them entirely. My monk pretty much used a sword until he got a blaster.

I've never worried about it too much ... just want to get Town Portal as quickly as possible.
Why a sword for the Monk? Would he/she ultimately do much better with Unarmed?

The high level swords (like an enchanted champion broadsword) do better damage than Expert Unarmed. Master Unarmed/Dodging are in Evenmorn Islands; my travel schedule never quite synced with the ships sailing out there, and I decided to just push for the end game. That party had some serious issues, and now that I've tried "No self above Expert, Elemental barely Master, and no Light/Dark", I won't be trying it again.

There were some quests I could have finished at Evenmorn (Obelisk maybe, Priest of Light, Arcomage), and the skill masteries, but ultimately it wasn't necessary. Unarmed and Sword was being phased out in favor of blasters anyway. I usually dislike having to go out there, and so I skipped it with a smile on my face for this run.

You don't get experience for anything killed while a character is unconscious. The character who lands the killing blow also gets a slight bonus, though everyone gets some points for anything the party kills.

One other useful hint a bow with flame aura on it will generally do more damage to an individual monster than a fireball.It will also allow you to do damage to creatures not normally harmed by physical attacks like oozes.