Paladin should kill the Warlord and take his stuff!

[Ridley's Cohort]

This may sound somewhat heretical to those of us who grew up with older versions of the game, but maybe it would help if we stopped thinking that most people (and characters) have a single "class". The average soldier probably has abilities that help him guard others (defender), hit hard (striker) and co-ordinate with and encourage his comrades (leader), and might thus be a multiclassed fighter/ranger (or rogue)/warlord.

In fact, the idea that a person only has a single class is probably a gross over-simplification that could not exist outside of some extremely unrealistic game.

I think you are onto something there.

Seems to me that pure Fighters are the exception among martial heroes of myth and history, not the norm. Most have something else going on, be it a level or three of Ranger or Barbarian or Cleric or or Rogue or Sorceror or Paladin (or Warlord).

While a 15th level straight Warlord may seem like an odd concept, it is not obvious that 15 levels of straight Fighter is any less odd.