Off the top of my head, there's Lattice and Wrap deformers, With lattices, you can use the Deformer set editor to add/remove additional objects as you go. Wrap deformers can be a bit messy in general, but you can use them like a custom shaped lattice and can give great results depending on the scenario. I don't think you…
@thomasp Thanks for replying Thomas, that's a nice solution, though I'll only use it if I can't make things work in Maya. @throttlekitty wrap deformers and blend shapes...that's a great idea! And Transfer Attributes, I'm kicking myself right now for not having thought of that. So long as some areas still retain the same…