im talking about stuff like this: http://www.curtad.com/knight/knight_3.jpg like how is it possible to sculpt stuff like the clothes without messing up the skin underneath, or sculpting stuff like the belt buckle?
If they're separate subtools, you can only sculpt on one at any given time. If it's the same tool, you can automask by polygroups. A belt buckle like that can easily be created with shadowbox or a normal mask extract. To me it looks like the kind of shape that might even be faster to do in zbrush vs traditional programs.
Subtools? Hard surfaced things like belt buckles are typically best modelled in Maya/3DSM but you can use clipping brushes for them. Edit: Yeah... Zbrush... Use subtools.