Quote - For organic type stuff, Sculptris has getting some good comments. I see now that the makers of ZBrush are somehow involved with the project. I'm not sure what's up with that but I'd grab it now, lest they start charging for it. 

Thank you so much for this - this was the first I'd heard of this fantastic program and I have to say that it's a dream for creating monsters etc (even for a complete novice like me!). All I have to do now is read some tutorials on creating morph targets and I'll have monsters with scary mouths! ;)

Quote - I opted for W3D when  given  the choice between  that  and Blender  and I am  happy  with W3D.

for water you  could use the "deform" commands  while in verticy  mode  and W3D also  does a nice random  "crumple"  command -

then, because  W3D is so  exelenmt at increasing and quading your polys  with its "smooth"  command  you  will prob end up  with some nice smooth liquidy  splashy shapes.

many thanks for these pointers - they REALLY help :)