challenge rating CR for ToEE

I'm vaguely familiar with the concept of CR, meaning that the lower a party is the more experience it will get for an encounter and if way over leveled they will get nothing. But I've got some particular questions I'm wondering about.

First of all it seems as if all members of my party are getting the same XP even though they are not the same level, which leads me to believe that the CR is party based.

If that is the case is based on some average, or highest level PC, do NPCs count?

Does party size have any effect? (It should, but I doubt DnD covers this, IDK)

If the party fights an easy encounter with a low level party member will they get any XP?

I'm trying to figure out if there is any point to not leveling my non-crafters as soon as possible to avoid a CR change, if that's a thing so that my crafters can catch up AND I'm wondering if that that is even possible, I'm starting to suspect no, though age-old guides suggest that it is.

Is there a thread the answers my questions somewhere, that is how it's actually implemented this game?
I've tried my best to search but no results were found (Int 14 I'm afraid).

 

I know if the party is levels 1 through 3 and the CR is up to 3 you will get the same experience regardless. This is due to how the experience by CR chart works in the RAW manual. After level 3 differences should bring noticeably different amounts.

 

IIRC, ToEE CR gives xp within a certain window. By this I mean that if you are too high or too low, your character will get much less than if it were within the best level range for that CR.

It's not a party level, but a CR divided by both number of party and then assigned to each member based on level.

However, I have recently played NWN2 and I may be mixing the two games for the minimum CR range needed.

* It's easy enough to test. Take a number of mid-level characters (~5 lvl +) and a level 1 character. Fight some mid-level mobs (ogres,etc), and the level 1 should get lots of xp. As long as the monster is not too high of a level. Then fight something high level (stone giant, or high-level bugbear) and compare.

TLDR: Yes, you can gain significant extra xp by under-leveling. I can't recall any relevant thread, though.

 

Here you go: http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/

 

Well, ok a couple of revelations and a couple of confirmations isn't bad. Since my crafters are just one level behind they probably fall within the same CR range suggested above. I'll also have to try picking up a level 1 or whatever to see what the result is.