You can't "lock" something that doesn't exist.

[Lacan]

Your statement became irrelevant the moment you said heavily modified. If Hrothgar is using a heavily modified roe model, then you could also say that it using a heavily modified Zbrush/Maya/3DS Max human base, or heavily modified cube if thats what they start with. Very few character models start as a cube, and they need a base. If the roe model was used as a base, then fair enough, it makes sense given their size and build, but that doesn't make it any less of a new model.

I was just trying to say that gear wouldn't be as big of an issue if they did use the roe model as a base, since all the gear in the game is already mapped to that model's skeleton. Not trying to downplay the effort that had to go into making the model though, it is obvious they put a lot of work into it. That's why we still aren't 100% if it is partially reused assets or not.