black smoke swirling around Hawke

[barbaram44]

I'm in Act 3 and Hawke has black smoke swirling around her. It doesn't seem to be impeding gameplay but I cannot get rid of it. What could be causing this?

[plasmic_fishbowl · Accepted solution]

Ok! So I just ran into this problem and I was disappointed when I came here and saw no solutions! So I figured out it's from the Hurlock Alpha in the Legacy DLC. He does some weird dark magic on you that has the visual effect of the smoke around Hawke. I think the glitch comes in if you kill the Hurlock Alpha as he's doing this spell(?) on you.

So this isn't really a solution for after this, but in the moment if you see it still on you outside the battle, just reload to a previous save and don't kill him when the smoke is around you. Sorry if this isn't super helpful if you're already past the Legacy DLC, but it is what worked for me. U•ェ•*U

[ThandalNLyman]

Is Hawke a Rogue?
Have you got "Shadow"as a Specialization and "Shadow Form" as a Talent?
Is it activated (perhaps as a "Self>Any" Tactic)?

[Ayshza]

i have the same problem, it;s a black-blue smoke swirling around hawke's torso, it's not from my tallent/abilities tree (i tried a maker's sigh potion and it did not work, i also tried disabling any talents and tactics)

my hawke is a shadow / assassin rogue

the problem appeared after i played the legacy dlc, i'm almost at the end of act3 (in fact i have yet to take the last main quest to finish the game and play trough themark of the assassin dlc)

also i tried messing around with the video options, it did not solve anything

here's a pic of my problem

http://i57.tinypic.com/34pic5u.jpg

any help would be apreciated, thank you

[JPinkman117]

i've been trying to figure this out! i can't believe this has been marked solved all these years because a rogue's shadow talents have nothing to do with this; i'm experiencing this as a mage as well. it started in the middle of legacy. disabling all sustained abilities and unequipping everything won't work; i even tried selling hawke's key to see if that's what was causing it but nothing. it goes away in conversations as if it's treated like a spell effect, though.

[plasmic_fishbowl · Accepted solution]

Ok! So I just ran into this problem and I was disappointed when I came here and saw no solutions! So I figured out it's from the Hurlock Alpha in the Legacy DLC. He does some weird dark magic on you that has the visual effect of the smoke around Hawke. I think the glitch comes in if you kill the Hurlock Alpha as he's doing this spell(?) on you.

So this isn't really a solution for after this, but in the moment if you see it still on you outside the battle, just reload to a previous save and don't kill him when the smoke is around you. Sorry if this isn't super helpful if you're already past the Legacy DLC, but it is what worked for me. U•ェ•*U

[EA_David]

Thanks for the comment @plasmic_fishbowl, I think you're on the right track. 

This was a very old post and technically a necro, but still a good piece of advice, as you could see this would crop up from time to time over the intervening years.

We'll close off the thread but highlight your post as a potentially useful workaround.