Changeable clothes and gear?

#1 I would have said sprite with mounted gear, but if this does not work, it would become a little bit very much more than that: Some kind of virtual bone system.

I'm currently thinking of how to do something similar, as I would need it as well. In case mounting isn't an option I will most likely need to do virtual mounting (ie holding all childs on the actor class and updating them through script / code manually to do what I want -> animated mount points)

#2 How is your source art created? If you are using rendered 3D art, then the brute-force way is to create a base template character with the required animations who is "naked". Then add armor and weapons pre-render and tweak the animations accordingly. Then swap the sprites according to their equipment when it is placed on the characters.

If they are hand-drawn, this is not an option (unless you have scores of artists and time!).

#3 I'd second the brute force way. An alternative way that is using the same technique would be to seperate the animation up into each body segment... then animate each piece of armor for that body for each animation... then mount them all as the player and create some sort of animation management system. Though just like what David suggested, if you are doing this by hand then that will take a lot of work.

#4 I recently did an example with this sort of thing by creating my models, dressing them, and rendering each layer out separately. I posted a fair bit about it over here, and you can see a little of what I did.

And then these could be tinted/overlayed in game. Source .blend files are linked to on that page as well (though I understand you're going for a retro 2d look).

--clint

#5 I know the OP isn't interested in implementing 3D characters in his old-style game, but I'm interested in the same thing.

Would it be easier to use a gear/equipment system with 3D models? I'm throwing ideas around and I am very set on a equipment system for my game, but my overall goal is to give the player the ability to make his character unique. I figured a 3D character would be easier to deal with, but I am not sure if I want to go 3D necessarily.