Larian have half-heartedly put in a bunch of "Xp-from-resolution" situations, where you get a portion of XP for diffusing, or otherwise overcoming an encounter in ways other than combat, but at the moment it's very hit and miss, and patchy, and the values are not satisfying. There's hope that this will be improved to a more satisfying and well-balanced level by launch - cross your fingers.
You're right about that, but that's mostly about quests. It gets more complicated with factions: Zhentarim, Kuo-Toa etc. pp. Do you take the XP by killing them or do you do without it. If you do without, what alternative is there to get XP compensation. In the predecessors there were at least random encounters when traveling or resting, where you could get some XP.
