My fingertips didn't hurt too much when I started playing. I mean they were a little sore, but not too much pain. I think the reason was that my hands have been really callused up for a while. Working on house and mowing lawns kinda does that to you.
One think that killed me though was when I started playing barr chords. Ohhhhh man. My hand would cramp up like there was no tomorrow. I found that you are doing one thing (like barr chords, regular chords, solos, finger picking, etc) and your fingers or hand hurts, either take a break or do something different. It gives your hand a break while you work on something different.