where is the option to turn off bonus exp?

[Ansem]

im up to chapter 5, is it in options or something?

[Gradivus.]

You can't turn it off, but you can just not use it and it'll have no effect.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Gradivus.

[Ansem]

how do you use it?

[Tragonight]

Just don't use it. If you don't know how to use it, then you're not using it, so you should be fine.

About how to actually use it, my memory's a bit foggy, but it should be somewhere in the Base.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Tragonight

[Gradivus.]

There's an extra preparations menu called the base, which appears from chapter 8 on, there you can choose "Award" and then "Award Exp" or something. I don't recall exactly.

Basically, it allows you to manually give exp to units of your choice.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Gradivus.

[Topaz Light]

It's in the Base. I think it's in the same submenu as skill management... It's been some time since I've played FETellius, though. Just go through all the submenus in the Base once you unlock it; you'll find it.

And bonus EXP is kinda like Gold a bit in that you build it up as you play the game but you have to manually "spend" it on characters by giving it to them. It never spends itself. You can't turn it off, but you can just choose to not use it if you'd prefer doing things that way.