Dragon Age Inquisition V: Hard in Hightown

[Morty]

I'm wondering why they didn't just make the weapons modular - mage staves already have blades on the end, so why are said staves always package deals instead of drawing from the same pool as the runes and blades that other classes get?

Not sure how that'd work. Staves are actually the biggest problem - one could see letting warriors use daggers and bows while letting rogues use two-handers, swords and shields, but mages and their staves? They're a separate thing.

[Giggling Ghast]

Finally upgraded my PC, so I got DA:I as a late birthday present. Still in the Hinterlands. Combat is ... a weird mix of easy and intensely frustrating. Walk into the wrong area and just get curb stomped. Stupid Large bears. Stupid Dragon. Heck, it seems like I'm supposed to let some of the quests here wait until I'm high enough level to do them?

Yes, all the zones (with the execption of the special levels where you do main story quests) are set up like that. You're meant to visit them and then come back later.

The Hinterlands is a particularly notable example. I would leave once you've taken care of a few basic quests, like collecting the ram meat for the refugees and meeting with Horsemaster Dennet. Go to Val Royeaux, where you'll be able to pick up some new party members (Vivienne and Sera).

[Landis963]

Not sure how that'd work. Staves are actually the biggest problem - one could see letting warriors use daggers and bows while letting rogues use two-handers, swords and shields, but mages and their staves? They're a separate thing.

First off, this is not the loot you'd find in-game, which would be essentially unchanged and as far as I can tell doesn't affect starting loadout. Each weapon, as I envision it, would have 3 slots to it: "Blade," "Shaft", and "Rune." For melee weapons, "Blade" is obvious, but a bow's "blade" would be the arrowheads and a staff's "blade" would be the one on the end. "Shaft" would be the hilt for daggers and swords, the wood part for bows, and the haft for staves. "Rune" would be elemental abilities. You'd still get weapons in paid chests, but you could deconstruct ones you don't normally use into their components, which you could then mix-and-match into the weapon you start with. (I assume for empty "Blade" and "Shaft" slots, there'd be a material slotted in automatically, probably sorted by character level, while an empty "Rune" slot on mage staves would be just blasts of force.)

[Giggling Ghast]

Eurogamer has a decent review of The Jaws of Hakkon, if anyone's interested.

I've also heard that, if you play on Hard or Nightmare difficulty, you will have a much more challenging experience in the DLC. Apparently they experimented a bit and made it so that on Hard and Nightmare difficulty, the enemies in JoH will be much more buffed and can take down barriers/guard quite quickly.

I've heard of people who sleepwalked through the game with their Knight Enchanter getting their asses handed to them in The Jaws of Hakkon. They're actually quite pleased.

[Calemyr]

Since I've apparently lost my previous endgame save for my Qunari Knight Enchanter, I've started up a new game. I thought I'd play a dagger rogue this time around, but I'm having significant trouble with one detail: Specialization. None of the specializations for rogues seem all that interesting or useful. Am I just not seeing something? I loved the Knight Enchanter and the Reaver offered a nice bit of risk/reward to keep it lively, but all of the rogue abilities seem to require ridiculous levels of micromanagement to get any actual use from them.

Any suggestions from our more roguish types?

[Psyren]

Sera's spec seemed fun to me, but melee rogue is my least favorite spec in the game so I have no idea how effective it ultimately is.

[Calemyr]

Sera's spec seemed fun to me, but melee rogue is my least favorite spec in the game so I have no idea how effective it ultimately is.

I'm actually not completely certain if I want to go daggers or bows, but daggers have a reliably insane damage output.

[Giggling Ghast]

I went with Tempest for my dagger rogue and I'm quite happy. A Thousand Cuts is ridiculously strong; I've one-shotted pride demons. And there's a nice little combo with Flask of Frost - once enemies are frozen, you can use Twin Daggers for extra damage.

Incidentally, Bioware confirmed Jaws of Hakkon will release on the remaining platforms in May. That's also when the Black Emporium is supposed to come out.

[Calemyr]

I went with Tempest for my dagger rogue and I'm quite happy. A Thousand Cuts is ridiculously strong; I've one-shotted pride demons. And there's a nice little combo with Flask of Frost - once enemies are frozen, you can use Twin Daggers for extra damage.

Incidentally, Bioware confirmed Jaws of Hakkon will release on the remaining platforms in May. That's also when the Black Emporium is supposed to come out.

Is Black Emporium going to be a patch/free DLC or a full-blown one?

As for my rogue, I might just go Tempest and put my focus on abilities that are not weapon type specific (Sabotage, Subterfuge, Tempest), with just a few from both of the other trees (Long Shot, Twin Fangs). That way he's not bound to one style over the other.

[Landis963]

Is Black Emporium going to be a patch/free DLC or a full-blown one?

As for my rogue, I might just go Tempest and put my focus on abilities that are not weapon type specific (Sabotage, Subterfuge, Tempest), with just a few from both of the other trees (Long Shot, Twin Fangs). That way he's not bound to one style over the other.

Patch, IIRC. Wasn't it the same patch as the tint table?

[Giggling Ghast]

It was supposed to be, but they ran into technical issues.

Last we heard, the Emporium is supposed to be free. Though obviously I'm not privy to internal communications at Bioware, so I can't say with certainty.

[Sajiri]

Is Black Emporium going to be a patch/free DLC or a full-blown one?

As for my rogue, I might just go Tempest and put my focus on abilities that are not weapon type specific (Sabotage, Subterfuge, Tempest), with just a few from both of the other trees (Long Shot, Twin Fangs). That way he's not bound to one style over the other.

You could just respec between bow and dagger whenever you wanted since you aren't bound to your starting choice. Thats what I did with rogue since I couldnt make up my mind between bows and daggers either (I also went tempest, I found it a lot of fun, but ultimately ended up with bows)

[Calemyr]

Well, my rogue is now on the backburner because I found the saves for Kid Adaar, my Knight Enchanter. On with the DLC.

Only spent a couple hours there so far, but here's my take on it at this point:

Spoiler

Show

So, yes, it is in fact just a new region for the game. Which seems lazy and overpriced until you realize two things. First, this is DAI, where the levels are huge, filled with things to do, and unique. Most games these days would be doing well to have just one of these regions as their primary world space. In fact, most games would kill to have this one, I imagine. This is because the second thing to realize about the DLC is that it's flat out gorgeous. It combines the vibrant beauty of the Emerald Graves with the verticality of the Forbidden Oasis and creates the most visually interesting region I've seen in the game.

One of the first things I discovered about the region is that the level scales. In the vanilla game it didn't matter if you were level 8 or 24, most encounters had a set level. The rift in the ravine in the Hinterlands was level 12 either way, for example. In the Basin there is no such thing as "over-leveled". I walked in at level 24 decked out in tier 3 armor made of tier 4 materials, thinking myself pretty invincible. Then I hit the first rift and a swarm of level 24 demons and wraiths jumped out at me and very quickly I was the only one left in the party because, you know, Knight Enchanter. I won, ultimately, by virtue of pure, boring invincibility, and I found the rewards were excellent. Not just a skill ring and a rune ingredient, I got half a dozen things, including a brand new tier 4 metal and some tier 4 rune ingredients. Yep, now dragons aren't the only things that drop Tier 4 materials. (Still fire damage on staves, though.) Also got a level 24 purple greataxe with absurd damage on it, which was impressive until I found the same item on my second rift.

The Avvar are interesting. The Jaws of Hakkon are pretty bog standard enemies, despite being 7 foot tall brutes with glowing crystalline weapons, having all the diverse units you're used to seeing in major factions - fighters, tanks, mages, archers, and skirmishers. The friendly tribe is where it really gets interesting, as it's a far more nuanced culture than the traditional stereotype and not as comically insane as our beloved goat chucker from the Fallow Mires. Their leader goes by the name Sun-Hair, which I expected to mean she was blonde. The story behind the name is much, much better than that, and I won't spoil it. Better to hear the story from her, anyway.

In the shops at the friendly Avvar village you can find an Avvar versions of all the Skyhold embellishments, including a new throne. I also found tier 4 armor schematics, which was a really cool discovery for a crafting maniac like me. It used the same models as original (though it let me have my favorite model as a tier 4 armor so I can't really complain), but being store-bought I can't say I'm really surprised. Oh, and it had tier 3 schematics of character-specific head gear such as Blackwall's Griffon Helmet or Cole's hat. Didn't check to see if they're still limited to their original characters, but it's still a nice little bonus.

The story is pretty simple, at least at first. A scholar has tracked the final days of the previous Inquisitor (from ~800 years ago) to the Frostback Basin and needs the Inquisition to help him on his archeological survey. The Jaws of Hakkon are outright hostile to "lowlanders" (anyone not Avvar) and in particular targets the Inquisitor. The friendly clan is... well... friendly, but has an oath of peace with the Jaws which keeps them from helping you outright, forcing you to earn the clan's respect. This includes finding a bear. (I laughed out loud - a fairly rare event - when my Inquisitor carefully pointed out that she didn't have a good track record with bears.)

The plot isn't really reliant on the main story. I was playing a postgame character and got a chance to ask Harding why she was still with the Inquisition, acknowledging the ending. There was also some talk about how, even if the whole Breach fiasco was over, it was still the Inquisition's responsibility to help with these things. You have to have Skyhold before you can start the quest, of course. Only an Inquisitor is allowed to chase another Inquisitor.

All told, I'm really liking this DLC. The region is large, with lots of cool stuff to do and beautiful sights to see, the story (so far) is pretty good. It's still overpriced, I think - it certainly doesn't seem worth a quarter of a whole new game - but I don't find I really regret buying it. There isn't a vanilla region in DAI that's even half as pleasant to look at and explore. And with DAI, that's really kinda saying something.

[Psyren]

I was playing a postgame character and got a chance to ask Harding why she was still with the Inquisition, acknowledging the ending. There was also some talk about how, even if the whole Breach fiasco was over, it was still the Inquisition's responsibility to help with these things. You have to have Skyhold before you can start the quest, of course. Only an Inquisitor is allowed to chase another Inquisitor.

That's the most interesting bit to me - it suggests that if you were flirting with her, she would have some special dialogue here. So perhaps they did continue the Harding romance after all; if so, that would be reason for me to roll a Dwarfquisitor and pursue her.

[Calemyr]

That's the most interesting bit to me - it suggests that if you were flirting with her, she would have some special dialogue here. So perhaps they did continue the Harding romance after all; if so, that would be reason for me to roll a Dwarfquisitor and pursue her.

I can't say if the romance is fixed, but there is a flirt in the dialogue and Harding plays a much larger role than her usual "Welcome to X! Here's our first problem in the area..." routine. In particular, you can talk to her about a good bit of side banter. One of which has her explain that she sent her family to Denerim when she joined the Inquisition and has kept in touch via letters. She wishes she could bring them to Skyhold, but after Haven she just can't bring herself to invite them. There's also a letter from her mom that states that her mom obtained maps from a neighbor and has been marking the places her little girl has been. She's very impressed.

She also has an amusing little bit of madness with the Iron Bull as she discusses some creative battle strategies with the Inquisitor including flinging flaming feces and dwarven archers riding on the shoulders of Avvar warriors. She and the Bull just start bellowing "Mayhem!" at each other until Harding notes that the word loses its meaning if you say it too often.

[Anteros]

Since I've apparently lost my previous endgame save for my Qunari Knight Enchanter, I've started up a new game. I thought I'd play a dagger rogue this time around, but I'm having significant trouble with one detail: Specialization. None of the specializations for rogues seem all that interesting or useful. Am I just not seeing something? I loved the Knight Enchanter and the Reaver offered a nice bit of risk/reward to keep it lively, but all of the rogue abilities seem to require ridiculous levels of micromanagement to get any actual use from them.

Any suggestions from our more roguish types?

I like assassination. It starts a little weak, but I was able to reliably put out thousands of damage per second with my assassination rogue once I had him tricked out. I could put down dragons in seconds. I killed the last boss before he was even 1/4th of the way through his monologue and had to go look it up online to see what he said.

It does require a bit of micromanagement, so I would never use it on a companion, but I tend to control my character at all times anyway unless I need to do something specific with someone else.

[whisperwind1]

Bit of a fluff related question here that's been bugging me for a while.

Am i missing something with Blackwall? How exactly was he able to keep up his masquerade as long as he did? I remember quite clearly it being stated in DAO that Grey Wardens can sense the darkspawn Taint in other creatures (which is how they know Darkspawn are close). Blackwall never underwent the Joining, which means he doesn't carry the taint. Wouldn't any Warden automatically know him for a faker if he introduced himself as one of them, but was obviously untainted?

Even supposing he's been operating alone since he took up the identity, and he received his orders through mail or whatever, the Warden contact for Here Lies the Abyss (or heck any warden in Adamant Fortress) should have been able to point at him and say "Dude, that guy isn't with us, he's got no taint in him!"

As I said, am I missing something?

[Cristo Meyers]

Bit of a fluff related question here that's been bugging me for a while.

Am i missing something with Blackwall? How exactly was he able to keep up his masquerade as long as he did? I remember quite clearly it being stated in DAO that Grey Wardens can sense the darkspawn Taint in other creatures (which is how they know Darkspawn are close). Blackwall never underwent the Joining, which means he doesn't carry the taint. Wouldn't any Warden automatically know him for a faker if he introduced himself as one of them, but was obviously untainted?

Even supposing he's been operating alone since he took up the identity, and he received his orders through mail or whatever, the Warden contact for Here Lies the Abyss (or heck any warden in Adamant Fortress) should have been able to point at him and say "Dude, that guy isn't with us, he's got no taint in him!"

As I said, am I missing something?

I think it's just running into one of the issues with game data carrying forward through 3 games. There are three different possible Warden Contacts and let's face it, at least one of them, probably two, aren't the kind of people that would turn away someone like Blackwall honestly trying to help, deception or no. So we end up with a pretty generic plotline there instead of three distinct ones.

Plus it's possible that the issue plaguing the whole Order is creating a lot of white noise, so to speak.

[Calemyr]

Okay. Completed Jaws of Hakkon last night. Final verdict: Best region in the game bar none. Best visuals, best environment, exceptional lore revelations, and (most importantly) more Harding than ever before. Is it overpriced? Hell yes. This could almost have been justifiable at $10, $15 is asking too much. Still, I don't regret getting it.

The gear is... okay. The glowy weapons are really not that impressive visually, but ARE the only Tier 4 weapons I found and thus brutally powerful (I built a staff ~40 damage higher than the best I could before). They don't take mods beyond runes to my knowledge, however. There are tier 4 armors around, but only the final one (well, three, one for each class of armor) has a different model (but once again, no mods). That final armor is extremely nice looking, however. Put it up there with the Slayer/Phantom armor in ME3's Citadel dlc as kickass armors I really want ASAP but won't get to see until very late in the game. Decent variety of actual legendaries, though most of the best ones use the glowy models and (as usual) none of them were better than I could actually craft myself. Warning: the glowy schematics are only available in the Avvar stronghold, and only by examining glyphs in the light of veilfire. It is very easy to miss some or all of them. I missed the bow, I'm sure.

The resources are pretty interesting. Most important of all is "Veil Quartz", a tier 4 "metal" that can be farmed with one caveat - you need a Veilfire torch to spot the nodes. Avvar can also drop a tier 4 cloth, as well, but it's pretty rare. Having farmable tier 4 resources is a pretty big thing. There are also a few more tier 3 resources and a few new masterwork abilities.

There's a new Inquisitor move (that adds to the Inquisitor skill tree). This puts up a barrier around you that stops all projectiles (including staves) for several seconds with two upgrades: a cooldown of 60 seconds (down from 90) and a damage reflection that does 5 damage per level to anyone dumb enough to shoot the bubble. The cooldown is a bit much, but beats the heck out of using Focus, which is what I feared it would do. Archers are rarely THAT big of a problem, but I can certainly see places where this would be an awesome feature. In fact, I should have tried to use it against the region's dragon, who is not above using the old "launch balls of ice from the sky or from a perch" tactic.

The lore is probably the most interesting part of the game. As we already knew the plot wasn't personal - this isn't about the current Inquisition or the Elder One or elven gods or the Inquisitor or their friends. It's about Ameridan, the last Inquisitor, who disappeared when the Seekers of Truth (the last Inquisition) formally joined the Templar 800 years ago, just before the second Blight. If you feel like doing some digging, you can discover quite a bit about the world in Ameridan's time and the comparison between then and now is pretty interesting. There's also a lot of Avvar lore, and the big guys have stepped away from the dumb brutish barbarian archetype and into a more viking-like one with a complex (if uncommon) society. The Hakkonites play the dumb brute role pretty spot on, however. All told, you get a lot of Avvar lore, a good bit of late inquisition/early Orlesian/early Chantry lore, and even a bit of Tevinter lore because why not. And some of it is, quite frankly, game-changing stuff.

I have to say, the region is hard. Even on normal difficulty, I don't think I would have managed without a Knight Enchanter. Not only are KEs virtually unkillable, they absolutely rip through barriers and guard, and everything here loves using one of the two, while the Hakkonite Bruisers use whirlwind attack to devastating effect.. Poor Cassandra dropped at least once every encounter, and more than once my KE was the only thing standing for the last third of the fight.

And finally, Harding. The girl plays a much bigger role in this region. Never a central role, maybe, but she has more to say in this region than the vanilla game combined. She was my main source for post-game specific dialogue - again, not much, but it's nice they acknowledge it.

So, yeah, that's my take on it. Definitely high quality but certainly lacking in some areas. I'll play it again on my rogue, if only because the armor is cool looking and I'm curious how brutal the region will be when scaled for level 16 rather than 24-27.

[Calemyr]

Bit of a fluff related question here that's been bugging me for a while.

Am i missing something with Blackwall? How exactly was he able to keep up his masquerade as long as he did? I remember quite clearly it being stated in DAO that Grey Wardens can sense the darkspawn Taint in other creatures (which is how they know Darkspawn are close). Blackwall never underwent the Joining, which means he doesn't carry the taint. Wouldn't any Warden automatically know him for a faker if he introduced himself as one of them, but was obviously untainted?

Even supposing he's been operating alone since he took up the identity, and he received his orders through mail or whatever, the Warden contact for Here Lies the Abyss (or heck any warden in Adamant Fortress) should have been able to point at him and say "Dude, that guy isn't with us, he's got no taint in him!"

As I said, am I missing something?

Blackwall doesn't have much interaction with Wardens, for this very reason. Those that he does meet aren't likely to point it out. Hawke's contact has enough on his plate without exposing a well-meaning fraud. The ones at Adamant are both in disarray and surrounded by other Wardens, so identifying a fraud would be nearly impossible. Most importantly, however, the pseudo-Calling is almost certainly dominating their senses to the point they wouldn't be able to sense another warden if their lives depended on it. Like looking for stars at noon.

But, generally, the important thing is that Blackwall is a remarkably smart guy. He builds a very believable identity based on a clever combination of balderdashing off of vague second-hand knowledge and a genuine excuse for being isolated. Remember that the constable legitimately was a recruiter who spent most of his time out in the wilds already, not unlike Duncan.

[Giggling Ghast]

I don't think the Wardens can sense the taint in other Wardens. I recall that in Warden's Keep, the main character expressed surprise that Avernus knew they were also a Warden. His answer is basically "Who else would come here?"

It's April 1 and you know what that means:

http://www.bioware.com/nugelope/

Also a new MP character: Zither!

http://www.dragonage.com/en_US/news/zither-the-virtuoso

[Zach J.]

So I recently acquired a copy of Dragon Age: Inquisition and am eager to start playing. I really like the look of the Qunari mage from the demo and was wondering: has anyone seen a guide to how the developers made her? I'm not very skilled with the character generator and any sort of guide that details their choices would be much appreciated.

[whisperwind1]

Blackwall doesn't have much interaction with Wardens, for this very reason. Those that he does meet aren't likely to point it out. Hawke's contact has enough on his plate without exposing a well-meaning fraud. The ones at Adamant are both in disarray and surrounded by other Wardens, so identifying a fraud would be nearly impossible. Most importantly, however, the pseudo-Calling is almost certainly dominating their senses to the point they wouldn't be able to sense another warden if their lives depended on it. Like looking for stars at noon.

But, generally, the important thing is that Blackwall is a remarkably smart guy. He builds a very believable identity based on a clever combination of balderdashing off of vague second-hand knowledge and a genuine excuse for being isolated. Remember that the constable legitimately was a recruiter who spent most of his time out in the wilds already, not unlike Duncan.

A fair enough explanation I guess, but it could easily be suggested that one of the three contacts isn't so nice a guy as to not point this out. Also after Adamant Fortress, when the False Calling is dealt with, i'd say SOMEONE would notice that the one guy who (possibly) gave them a rousing pep-talk about what it means to be a Warden, and wearing their iconography wasn't registering as one of them.

Also assuming that Blackwall was canny enough never to come into physical proximity of a real Warden for years, wouldn't someone eventually question why a Constable of the order can't perform the Joining? I'm fairly certain that's what sets them apart from regular Wardens.

[Calemyr]

A fair enough explanation I guess, but it could easily be suggested that one of the three contacts isn't so nice a guy as to not point this out. Also after Adamant Fortress, when the False Calling is dealt with, i'd say SOMEONE would notice that the one guy who (possibly) gave them a rousing pep-talk about what it means to be a Warden, and wearing their iconography wasn't registering as one of them.

Also assuming that Blackwall was canny enough never to come into physical proximity of a real Warden for years, wouldn't someone eventually question why a Constable of the order can't perform the Joining? I'm fairly certain that's what sets them apart from regular Wardens.

It's worth noting that, even after he's revealed, the Wardens do not appear angry about the deception and will readily Join him in if you allow it. As Blackwall he did nothing to shame the order and indeed only served to represent it faithfully (while they were the ones tarnishing their good name, ironically). Had he done differently, they'd probably have hunted them down, but Wardens are infamously pragmatic and would likely not endanger a valuable ally over something so trite as a lie - as long as that lie hasn't hurt them. It's the Orlesian military and political powers that cry for his head, but then Blackwall has hurt them.

I should also point out that the genius of a Warden recruiter is that there's no Blight on. It's like he got a job as a sign language interpreter on radio, nobody cares how good a job he's doing. He doesn't have to strongarm people into joining the Wardens like Duncan did, he doesn't need to pressure them at all. Heck, even the "conscripts" he does take are simply an excuse to train up some village militia. Blackwall is using the Warden name to inspire and empower, but he has no incentive to actually recruit anyone to the Wardens. Now, if there was a new Blight, Blackwall would be quickly revealed and most likely recruited (willingly or no).

[Landis963]

It's worth noting that, even after he's revealed, the Wardens ... will readily Join him in if you allow it.

Where is that mentioned?

[Calemyr]

Where is that mentioned?

When you judge Blackwall after springing him from the capital, one of your possible sentences is to make him a real Warden, with the significant chance of death that comes with it, once Cory is taken care of. The banters that people have with him after the fact make it clear that not only is he willing to Join, they're willing to let him.

[Landis963]

When you judge Blackwall after springing him from the capital, one of your possible sentences is to make him a real Warden, with the significant chance of death that comes with it, once Cory is taken care of. The banters that people have with him after the fact make it clear that not only is he willing to Join, they're willing to let him.

...I'm having difficulty thinking of a better fate, really. Especially since the alternatives are "maintain the lie," "let him off scot-free," and "not rescue him in the first place."

EDIT: I was idly flipping through the Keep and I noticed something odd about the Inquisition portion. Mine's all hidden, mainly because I don't have Inquisition yet (haven't really had a chance to finish Origins yet, let alone skip ahead to Inquisition) but under the "Inquisitor" section of the tapestry there are two options. Their counterparts in DAO and DA2 have the character selection and "Alive&Well"/"Humorous" (in my case), in that order. However, the extra option in DAI (Which, to reiterate, is hidden on mine) is before the selection of the hero. What is that?

[Psyren]

I have the nasty feeling that, if you force him to undergo the Joining, he'll die. Pretty much everyone that gung-ho about the Wardens has ended up dead. (See also Daveth, Mhairi.)

EDIT: I was idly flipping through the Keep and I noticed something odd about the Inquisition portion. Mine's all hidden, mainly because I don't have Inquisition yet (haven't really had a chance to finish Origins yet, let alone skip ahead to Inquisition) but under the "Inquisitor" section of the tapestry there are two options. Their counterparts in DAO and DA2 have the character selection and "Alive&Well"/"Humorous" (in my case), in that order. However, the extra option in DAI (Which, to reiterate, is hidden on mine) is before the selection of the hero. What is that?

AFAIK, nobody has the Inquisition section of the Keep yet.

[Landis963]

AFAIK, nobody has the Inquisition section of the Keep yet.

I don't remember who said it (I know it was in this thread, but beyond that I've no idea), but if you import a completed playthrough of DAI into the Keep, you'll be able to see everything there, but you won't be able to change anything. And I can definitely flip to it, which displays a DAO-sized array of panels, all of which save the one devoted to the player character show "Hidden" and a greyed-out Keep logo. I can click on any of them, which brings me to either a subpage of panels or one of those pages where you choose the outcome, all of which, again, show the greyed-out Keep logo. If I click on the player character's panel (which showed a female Rogue Trevelyan in the Tapestry's art style) I'm taken to a subpage with one "Hidden" panel and one panel where I choose from the array of preset Inquisitors. (Fun Fact: Male Qunquisitor's default name is Kaaras, while his "sister's" name is Herah) I'm asking about the contents of the "Hidden" panel on that subpage.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

I don't remember who said it (I know it was in this thread, but beyond that I've no idea), but if you import a completed playthrough of DAI into the Keep, you'll be able to see everything there, but you won't be able to change anything. And I can definitely flip to it, which displays a DAO-sized array of panels, all of which save the one devoted to the player character show "Hidden" and a greyed-out Keep logo. I can click on any of them, which brings me to either a subpage of panels or one of those pages where you choose the outcome, all of which, again, show the greyed-out Keep logo. If I click on the player character's panel (which showed a female Rogue Trevelyan in the Tapestry's art style) I'm taken to a subpage with one "Hidden" panel and one panel where I choose from the array of preset Inquisitors. (Fun Fact: Male Qunquisitor's default name is Kaaras, while his "sister's" name is Herah) I'm asking about the contents of the "Hidden" panel on that subpage.

That panel is class specialization.

And yes, you can import a completed playthrough into the Keep, with will reveal only those options you took, provided the Keep bothers to notice them (but only the option taken, so it can't be changed). In addition, you can go into the settings and set the spoilers such that everything is revealed and editable.