You'll probably get better responses at a forum where artists concentrate on renders. Polycount is mostly about realtime. Take a look at CGTalk for example. http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=46
Everything you've said there is correct, but I think you need to make a differentiation between a pre-rendered and game res character here -- it sounds like what you're wanting is a cross between the two (normal mapped low res but with pre-rendered shaders). If that's not what you're wanting, I suggest you look into…
hm...shaders can add effects, but still if you make a sucky diffuse it will sucks, look at tinmands normal mapping examples at the pimping and preview, shows exactly what i mean.