Vertex Shifting (Character Creation)

Hey there guys...

I'm trying to make a character creation screen where the user would be able to customize how the character looks. At some point in time I would like to be able to shift the vertexes of the character mesh to make him/her look more built or more fat, longer nose, this sort of thing.

So, what I'm wondering is... Is there a command or function in the engine code that I could examine or even use to accomplish vertex shifting. Starting with something simple like turning a dts object from just a box to a pyramid...

Is this even possible with the dts shape files??

Thanks in advance for any information you can give me.

Jon