Quote - It would be worlds faster to make a pose to apply to the character that locks the offending parts in the main character.

Your boot is basically a knee brace that would lock shin twist and side to side.

If you are going to use side to side, it will have to rotate (and bend) the thigh part around the thigh for it to work right.

 

well the twist of the shin is mostly done in the thigh.  a shin doesnt really move at all from the knee down until you get into the ankle.. parts of the structure above the knee are intended to be somewhat flexible to allow for movement, even if slightly restricted.

the problem is that the center of the knee bending 'should' be different from any twist or side to side motion... but no figures do it that way nor would you normally want them to  

I dont know how one would go about this without adding an extra bone.. which then messes with conforming...

 

just editing as I missed the last line of your post...

 

problem seems to be that I need an extra bone for either bend or side-side/twist.  The bend needs to be separate from the side to side, and needs to NOT be part of the shin bone as that joint center will be rotated by the twist and side to side of the base figure..  in the hierarchy twist/side must come first as they need to be applied before the bend.  However if I put in a ghost bone after shin, but keep the joint center where it needs to be to swivel correctly that seems to change the end point of the shin bone such that when conformed the whole thing kinda rolls up into a ball.... not to mention getting that ghost bone bend to respond to the shin bone bend of the figurewhile having the bend rotation of the boots shin bone locked at zero

Or am I making it too complicated?