I have completely redone Erebus, the lead villian in my little project Giants in the Earth. some constraints -- the Eye Focus can be scaled to cause him to squint. His cloak can be switched from an IK based deform to FK via rotating the bone over his head on the Drape FK layer. He has a pair of claws hidden in his arms that can be extended.
He will cut loose in the next scene (G5) but you can see him play his chess game in Scene G4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVrI21Q1HCA
(thanks to Lee Salvemini - the arms and face were based off his ninja character creation dvd)
Nice update, hope you don't mind me using this for the New Shadow Men in Mrs. E, they are very popular.