The Helm of Bearclaw is some of my first sculpting work. It was with this model that I learned how to use masking to quickly apply complex designs to a model.

 

The drawback to this method is that the model has to have UVW mapping applied to it to use the mask accurately, but I learned 3DS Max long before Zbrush, so I'm comfortable starting on my low-poly first. If I concept in Zbrush and re-topologize, I can always add details in this way toward the end of the workflow.