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Dragon Age: Origins

Free specialization manuals glitch
FInd a vendor that has the manual you want and then save your game. Buy the manual to unlock the specialization and reload your save. It will still be unlocked, you will have your money back, and the manual will also be missing from the merchants inventory. *Note: this glitch has not been fixed as of 11/17/09.

Trophies

Secret trophies for Dragon Age: Origins
Complete each condition to get the allotted Trophies:

Bonus items
In order to complete the following, one must play Dragon Age Journeys and complete the objectives as listed. Journeys is a flash-based RPG made with the same spirit as it's PC/Console Counterparts. You must have a Bioware account and have it linked with your DA:O account in order for this to work. One can play Dragon Age Journeys at www.dragonagejourneys.com.

Item set bonuses
Equip the indicated item set to get the corresponding bonus.

Increasing approval
Sometimes your party might not care for you or bluntly tells you that they could be off better somewhere else. This can be changed easily. Each item that has "Gift" beside it can be given to a party member. You cannot give one to your own character. For example, some of the demon things that you get in your travels (like the totem or demon statue) can be given to Sten. You will get at least a 5+ approval. Each item varies from person to person. Some are meant more for others. You must learn which item fits what person.

Free tier 4 mages staff
Use the following trick to get some items and gifts before you leave the castle. When playing as a human noble, after you go to your brother Fergus' room but before you leave, to go to bed ask your dog "Do you see anything interesting?". If he brings nothing back, ask him again. By doing this you will obtain the following items:

Piece of wood, which is a tier 4 mage staff that has a +1 Constitution and +10% Nature Resistance.
Found cake.
Dirty pair of pantaloons.
Tangled ball of yarn
Bottle of Garbolg's backcountry reserve.
Greenstone or elfroot.
Unique but seemingly useless Codex entry.

Easy money
You can buy two packs from the quartermaster when you begin the Grey Warden Joining (once before you go in the wilds and once you come out). Once you have them, you should have 100 item spaces in your inventory. Collect everything during the main and side quests. When you find a merchant or someone possibly to trade, do it. Keep adding more to your inventory space. A pack is 10 spaces extra, but prices tend to vary from those you buy. The quartermaster in the beginning sells them at the same price. The dwarf merchant that follows your party to camp varies. The quartermaster at The Tower of Magi has one for a heavy price, but it is worth it because you can hold more items and sell more as you see fit. By doing this you can make a lot of coin by mid-game. What you buy and sell depends on the coin you get to carry through the game.

Easy "Silver Tongued" trophy
In Orzammar, there is a man in the Chamber of Assembly by the name of Vartag. Speak with him about earning Lord Behlen's trust. He should give you papers that state that Lord Harrowmont sold the same piece of land to two people. After he gives you the papers, go to the Shaperate in the Diamond Quarter. It is at the opposite end of the entrance to the Commons. Once you are in the Shaperate, talk to the Shaperate and give him the papers. He will tell you that they are forged. After that, return to Vartag and tell him the papers are forged. After you have done this, there is a Persuade line in which you can say. You can do this as many times as desired. Note: It helps if you have a high Coercion skill or high Cunning. Also, if you made a Dwarf Commoner, your sister will take you directly to Vartag once you have entered the Diamond Quarter.

Easy experience
To get more experience points earlier in the game, as soon as you leave Lothering, go to the city of Denerim. Once there, you will find a building named "Wonders of Thedas". Go inside it and purchase the Archivist's Belt. As long as it is equipped, you will get an experience point boost for everything in your Codex. Books will increase from 50 experience points to 75 experience points.

Redcliffe: Possessed child
Eventually once you reach Redcliffe, there will be an option to enter the boy, aside from killing him and confronting the demon inside of the boy. Do not kill the boy. You will not gain much from his death and most likely your allies will disapprove. Instead, choose the option to enter the boy and let the Blood Mage do his ritual. Once you are inside, talk to the father. Once this is done, you must talk to the child "Possessed" and kill the demon inside him multiple times. Once you reach a certain part where you do not talk to the child, but the demon straightforward, try to converse with her. Conversing with her will get you more than just killing her. She will request that in exchange for her life, and the permission to enter the boy's body again in the near future, she will offer you gifts. One is a new specialization. Another is a certain rare item, armor, or weapon. Finally, is pleasure. Pleasure should not be an option, as it does not give you anything in exchange, not even an intimate scene. Select either the item or the specialization. However if you truly do not want to obtain anything useful, kill her. Killing her alone results in the same experience you would get from killing the boy, not to mention the previous times you have also killed her.

Ostagar: Extra backpack
Upon arriving at Ostagar, purchase the Backpack from the Quartermaster. Note: You should have enough money if you collected sell-able items and gear from the beginning storyline. Complete the quest where you and the other recruits enter into the Wilds. Note: Make sure you explore the entire map. Complete the "Joining" ritual and become a Grey Warden. Before going to attend the meeting with Duncan and the King, return to the Quartermaster. There should be another Backpack available at the same price as earlier.

Classes for free
Since the game unlocks a class for the whole save data for other playable characters, this allows players to cheat the system on gaining it. 1. Save your money. Save first, then buy all the manuals for classes, use them, and reload. You'll keep all your money and the classes are unlocked. 2. During the time you're in the Fade rescuing Conner, save before talking to the Desire Demon. Ask for the Blood Mage class first.. Once all the cut scences are over, just reload and you can choose something else. 3. Allister, Morgan, and others offer job classes. Just save up all the gifts and save the game. Give all the gifts to one friend. Talk them into teach you the class, then reload. Class is unlocked and you still keep the gifts.

Superman reference
The following is a random event that happens while traveling on the world map. You will encounter a farmer and his wife who find a baby in a meteor crash, just after it happens. They decide to take the baby and raise it as their own. You will get the Meteor Ore that the baby came in. It can be made into armor by Wade in Denerim. Your best chance of getting this event is from one of the Chantry Board mission in Redcliffe. Travel straight from Redcliffe to Refugees.

Portal reference
You must have Sten in your party for this to work. At the end of the game, if you choose to perform the ritual with Morrigan, you will go to the crowning of the new king or queen. After the dialogue with Alistair you can walk around and speak with your companions. Find Sten and he will say "Where is the cake? They promised there would be cake. The cake is a lie..."

Mass Effect reference
You can find a book in the Orzammar underground section "The Dead Trenches", near the "Legionnaire Shrine" at the end of a broken bridge. The book is called "Load Limit Reached". The first line reads "'Mass will have an effect," he says. It mentions a Dwarf named Shepard, the same name as the main character of Mass Effect.

Star Wars reference
Upon unlocking the door to free Anora, who is dressed in armor, your character can comment: "Aren't you a little short for a guard?" This is a reference to Star Wars: A New Hope, upon Leia seeing Luke Skywalker in a similar situation.

Developers Notes
After The Urn of Sacred Ashes quest, Haven will have a massive set of developer quotes in the form of gravestones behind the farm house;

Haven tombstone: "Questing for Blackrock Sword. Be back soon --MB" refers to Ultima VII.
Haven tombstone: "The LHC did it..." refers to the Large Hadron Collider.
Haven Tombstone: "Jennifer Hepler: Queen of the Dwarves." Jennifer is a BioWare writer who worked on Dragon Age. Presumably, she is Queen of the Dwarves.
Haven Tombstone: "Building 7." refers to the third tower to collapse on 9/11.
Haven Tombstone: "In memory of John Doe: human commoner."
Haven Tombstone: "Great-great-great grandfather Gygax."
Haven Tombstone: "Cori May: Here I stay."
Haven Tombstone: "Sheryl was not buried here. She was cremated."
Haven Tombstone: "In memory of Aluvian Darkstar, who fought the darkspawn relentlessly for four years." This seems to be a nod to Bioware reusing names for pre-generated characters. It seems likely she was a test character while the game was in development. Or possibly, a reference to the Aluvian race in the once popular Turbine-developed MMORPG, Asheron's Call.
Haven Tombstone: "I told you I was sick" is a reference to Spike Milligan, who quipped that he wanted his tombstone to read 'I told you I was ill'.
Haven Tombstone: "post hoc ergo propter hoc". The line is the latin philosophical fallacy directly meaning "After this, therefore due to this"

Free Specialization Books
Save the game, then purchase a Specialization Book from a vendor. The message "Specialization Unlocked" will appear. Load your saved game file. You will have regained the gold you spent for the book, but the specialization will still be unlocked.