Experience difference

I apologize if this is in the wrong area.
I have noticed something strange lately on my characters. Because of the xp bonus I have been getting AA's for my 65 Barbarian Beastlord and my 65 Wood Elf Druid. When I kill a mob I will get different amounts of xp for the beastlord and druid, but not all of the time. When I kill some mobs, they give both characters 3848 experience. In the same area, if I kill another mob, the druid gets 5473 while the Beastlord gets 4376. I don't understand why this is. I have tested this in atleast 3 zones with the same result. Some mobs give the same amount of xp, while others give 20% more to one character.
I asked about this in /ooc and they suggested it might be an adventure band thing but I am not in an adventure band. Also, someone suggested the AA difference between the characters could be causing this, but then, why only on certain mobs.
I have tested this in Crystal Caverns, Undercaverns, and the Plaguelands. Any suggestion on what would be causing this is greatly appreciated.

do you ALWAYS box them together? could be a zone bonus difference

Yep, examine zone modifiers (bonuses) and then see if theyre the same.

Yes, they are always boxed together.
And yes, they are both receiving the same zone modifier. Take for instance Crystal Caverns, Zaranth 1 gives 3848 experience to both characters. Zaranth 2 gives 5473 xp to the druid, 4376 xp to the beastlord. Both mobs are dark blue. Lt blue mobs always give the same amount of xp to both characters. Both are receiveing 65% bonus from the zone and 10% new area bonus. And, this has been tested in multiple zones.

your beast obviously has a leak somewhere, better tar and feather him asap

Hmm.
Is there any other suggestions on what could be causing this? Maybe a response from a developer? About 250 people have viewed this post,I can't be the only one that has noticed something like this.

Something doesn't seem right that you get bonuses on your druid on only some mobs. I would think perhaps racial bonuses, but that would be on all mobs.

I'm almost positive I've seen similar differences from my monk to my sham (both iksar), but I never logged it or anything.

On some fights do both characters always engage? I think if a character doesn't engage in a fight it may sometimes give them a slight bit less xp than if they had.

Thank you for the responses, please keep them coming.
Both characters engage. In fact, the Beastlord does most of the damage and the work and get's 20% less xp. I was grouped with a buddy yesterday and the same thing happened. I have tested it where the druid does absolutely nothing in the fight and the druid still ends 20% more on the kill. Again, this isn't every mob. My thoughts are that if the mob is level 49 or 50, then both characters receive the proper amount of xp. If the mob is level 51 - 60, then the druid gets a 20% increase (or the Beastlord get's a 20% decrease which ever way one chooses to look at it). This 20% increase is never shown on screen as a modifier, just in the number of xp gained on the screen.

With my two I just assumed it was some kind of function of xp scaling with number off aas. My monk is way ahead of my shaman and is always the one that gets less when it happens.

The 2 characters are relatively close in aa's. Less then 20 AA's difference between the 2.

Wiz said:

* Aquiring a large number of AA will now make certain mobs give less-than-optimal experience as the risk and challenge of fighting them dwindles. The changes occur at every 50 AA gained post the first 100. Any mob that is below your "challenge" level for your amount of AAs will yield only 80% of its normal experience. Challenge levels are:
* 150 AAs: Level 51.
* 200 AAs: Level 53.
* 250 AAs: Level 55.
* 300 AAs: Level 57.
* 350 AAs: Level 59.
* 400+ AAs: Level 61.
* Effectively, these changes will make AAs come at a less ridiculous pace (One per half an hour as is almost standard now) to well-AAed characters, without penalizing characters to whom fighting similar mobs is a considerably harder challenge. If you think this is unfair, then you should note that the same logic is currently applied in the entire Mob Con system.

Click to expand...

This system is almost certainly what you are seeing. You get a -20% XP penalty for killing a mob below your challenge level. Challenge level goes up at specific numbers of AAs. This information used to be in the XP message, but Wiz took it out because people freaked out about it when they were able to see the message. This specific AA numbers and levels in this thread are no longer correct, but the system is still in effect.

Hmm this makes me wonder if I should stop aa'ing at 349 and then work on Tomes?

The penalty does not apply to tomes, only exp gained towards AAs.