exp penalties

[rcasale42]

Hi, my friend and I started two new characters, and he is a paladin. We are noticing that from the exp penalty I reached level 2 before him, and I am likely the reach level 3 before him as well. If we keep playing together am I eventually going to get too far ahead of him, and have to wait for him to catch up? Its annoying that we make the time to play together but he is still going to be behind me in levels.

Is there a way for us to level at the same rate? From what I understand about exp mechanics, if we were both the same level and had the same amount of progress into the level, he would actually have more exp points because he is a hybrid. This means he will be getting a larger share of group exp (but needs more to level) and I will be getting less exp (but need less to level). Would this cause us to level at roughly the same rate?