Is it possible to create a custom skin / redo an existing newtype skin (Say for example a furry skin or extremely pale human skin) but rather then set it as a new race (and thus get the whole 'won't load broken steel without the patch' thing) set it instead as an 'unusable' or 'nonplayer-only' skin for an existing race, so that is used only by the single none-player character it's wanted for?

A new 'skin' requires a new race.
Unless you have a clothing outfit with the new skin.. Outfits 'replace' the existing body parts.

skinning= applying a skin/physique modifier and 'rigging' a mesh to a skeleton(rig).

Really, where does calling skinning and skin a texture come from? it's so weird.

And wtf is up with places like fpsbanna, or whatever it is, everyone is jumping around calling meshes skins as well! maddness, the world is mad. :ahhh:

i think it comes from the fact that a 'skin' is the outer layer, overlaid over the mesh like skin over a skeliton.

Tthe reason is asked this was i plan to add a companion (eventually) to a mod i'm creating, who will have dark. long hair (probably one of the hair customs) and uber pale (think vampire or lake-corpse pale) skin. would i need to create a race, or just a custom version assigned to an existing raceset, or just set an existing skin tone to what i want?

You could probably use the caucasion race and set the skin tones in the editor to pale white.

This is how I would do it if it absolutely had to be something unique... just redo the skin texture part of a single existing outfit and make it unique to the follower. Otherwise Willieseas other suggestion of using just a custom skin tone for one of the light skin races should be fine. The game renders stuff too light anyway so even a marginally white skin tone will look glaringly white ingame.

Well, I was Kinds looking for the 'Alma' look (from FEAR2.) You know, the whole "Hasn't-Seen-sun-been-floating-in-stasis-tank-for-200-years" pale look. Could this be done by adjusting the skinntone settings in character creation?

I'm not familiar with that game, but I've done nearly pure white vampire skins with extremely light detail shading for other games. Yes, the caucasian skin can easily get almost a pure white or pickled white. The Face Advanced --> Texture tab has additional settings that can really help in getting the look you want.