I regret allowing paladin as a starting class in my campaign. Feels like it cheapens the class to have them running around at low levels and it gives paladin players the wrong incentive:
Sacrifice yourself in the name of uprooting evil, vs say a lawful fighter: chivalrously obtain wealth in order to become better armed, trained, and lead men.
The former almost always ensures that low level paladins will overextend themselves and the party and get killed, and encourages less of the treasure hunting mindset necessary to get out of the first few levels. By later levels I think paladins can justify acting on most threats, hence I'm thinking about making it a prestige class for lawful fighters (and maybe anti-paladins for chaotic ones).
What are your guys' experience with this?