New to GD so bear with my ignorant question.

It seems kinda pointless to me to require a skill point be spent just to "unlock" the skill tree for each class a character may have (so up to two skill points are spent just to be able to add skills which means 2/3rd of a level's worth of skill points are spent just to have skills - assuming dual classing that is).

Does anyone know why this little mechanic is used here?

http://grimdawn.wikia.com/wiki/Masteries I somehow like that idea during my thirst hour into the game. Can play a bit with the character before i have to make the one time decision how to supplement my first character ;)

Skill points in class do not just unlock class skills they also increase your stats depending on the class.

So even if you don't put a single point in health skill for soldier , it will have much more health than nightblade

On a recent hardcore character I tried to spend the first 100 points into two base classes to get more hp and base stats. It worked pretty well and I steamed trough normal mode easily, can of course make it faster and safer with select skills. The thing is while it might not seem like much those base stats have a large value and you will have to compare it's to actual skills/passives for the points further down the line as there isn't enough points for everything.

And that's important to be able to equip the better stuff..