Subdivision or Multiresolution levels of refinement?

Often times I want to keep the subdivision hull so I don’t have to work with so many vertices, but there are small changes I want to make without applying the subdivision modifier (easier time with weight painting and large form changes).

In maya there’s something like levels of refinement: ( http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/index.html?url=Editing_subdivision_surfaces_Switch_between_subdivision_levels.htm,topicNumber=d0e249627 ) where you can make vertex level tweaks on individual subdivision levels without losing your hull, can something like this be accomplished in blender?

I thought multiresolution would be the solution but it seems I can only use the sculpt tool whereas I need vertex level edits.

we had that functionality in previous versions, but it was never restored. i think you can do it in 2.48

Hm, is there anything in any of the blender branches?

you could export it to 2.48, adjust it, and then import it back to 2.7. i think there are add-ons for importing and exporting from/to older blender versions. you don’t need to re-install anything, just make a separate folder within your main blender directory, download the zip instead of the installer, and unzip it into that folder. that is assuming you are using windows OS. I don’t know how the other ones work.
(edit) you can also export / import as an .obj file.

Yes, you can do it with Multires.
The thing is you can’t edit the Multires levels in EditMode, you have to go to SculptMode. It’s even easier to edit, you can be just as precise with a small GrabBrush, but can work on large scale areas as well. Sculpting in Blender is good.
Mind you, you can’t really export that to other appz without applying the Multires, and in turn getting stuck with the hiRez mesh.