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Not a game, but did you try Heromachine?
If you can get it cheap, Sims: Medieval might also be a good choice.
Note that Sims: Medieval sneaks SecuROM in in a patch, if that kind of thing bothers you. I also can't recall how many characters you can create with Sims: Medieval as it is less sandboxy than the original game (but still comes with its robust character creator).
You could also just try the Sims and download a bunch of community mods that incorporate medieval style clothing, but if the mods require the expansion packs, that gets cost prohibitive. It also requires giving money to EA, which I am never a fan of these days, but I bought the Sims 3 while I was still an EA customer, and in my experience, it's hands down the best 3D character body generator out there that is easy to find.
For 2D images, I would agree with feytharn's suggestion of HeroMachine. It's not perfect, but absolutely gives you a pretty wide toolbox to use with and you can get at least a good range of characters. My main issue with it is its limited selection of body types--can't make a big strong Amazonian type body like Imrijka for example, or a zaftig character (at least last I used it).
If you can wait, I know Profantasy is working on an update of its Character Artist program. The current version can't do much more than what Hero Machine does for you (and I think I'd prefer Hero Machine), but the previews of the update look pretty good (although disappointingly also seem to lack variety in body types, but it's hard to tell with previews). I don't know what the release date is though. Profantasy is a good company with excellent customer service who are very good about actively supporting their products, and have reasonable install licenses and such.
You might also just try Googling "fantasy character generator" and variations thereof and seeing what you get.
I'd suggest Skyrim, especially if you have a PC that can run it. I suggest PC because there are mods that you can install that will let you get a lot more mileage out of it as a character generator, including hundreds of pieces of armor / jewelry / weapons. It's got several types of elf, an orc race that would do nicely for half-orcs as well, and several human ethnicities. Decent control over character appearance, although again mods can give much more.
Suggested mods for something like this:
Alternate Start / Live Another Life (avoids the long intro sequence, lets you get right to making character)
Enhanced Character Edit (more options for tweaking appearance)
Immersive Armors (adds tons more armor sets)
Apachii Hair (adds many more hairstyles for male and female)
Ultimate Assortment by Favoredsoul (more jewelry and weapons)
Cloaks of Skyrim (more cloak styles)
Elven Dresses by Naihan (dresses inspired by LOTR movies)
Art of Magicka (many robe replacers and retextures)
I'd suggest Skyrim, especially if you have a PC that can run it. I suggest PC because there are mods that you can install that will let you get a lot more mileage out of it as a character generator, including hundreds of pieces of armor / jewelry / weapons. It's got several types of elf, an orc race that would do nicely for half-orcs as well, and several human ethnicities. Decent control over character appearance, although again mods can give much more.
Suggested mods for something like this:
Alternate Start / Live Another Life (avoids the long intro sequence, lets you get right to making character)
Enhanced Character Edit (more options for tweaking appearance)
Immersive Armors (adds tons more armor sets)
Apachii Hair (adds many more hairstyles for male and female)
Ultimate Assortment by Favoredsoul (more jewelry and weapons)
Cloaks of Skyrim (more cloak styles)
Elven Dresses by Naihan (dresses inspired by LOTR movies)
Art of Magicka (many robe replacers and retextures)
The only issue with this is you can create only one character per save, so it's hard to go back and reference. Even with mods, I also don't how much options you have for starting outfit. That said, Skyrim certainly has a good character appearance generator -- and is a fun game to play.
ETA: ALthough duh, I guess you could screenshot everything.
Screenshots, or multiple saves. If you save in a small-ish building (as opposed to outdoors or in a huge dungeon), they should load pretty quick. Also the load savegames screen shows character names shown in addition to the (small) screenshot of the save location.
As far as starting equipment goes, not really a problem. You can use console commands to give yourself whatever item you like. It's not really cheating since you're only doing it to make characters anyway :)
Tilde/backtick key ('~' / '`') brings up the console, 'help "itemname" 0' will give you a list of all items matching the string and their itemcodes (which look like '3600df2c' or similar), then 'player.additem itemcode 1' will give you 1 of that item.
Screenshots, or multiple saves. If you save in a small-ish building (as opposed to outdoors or in a huge dungeon), they should load pretty quick. Also the load savegames screen shows character names shown in addition to the (small) screenshot of the save location.
As far as starting equipment goes, not really a problem. You can use console commands to give yourself whatever item you like. It's not really cheating since you're only doing it to make characters anyway :)
Tilde/backtick key ('~' / '`') brings up the console, 'help "itemname" 0' will give you a list of all items matching the string and their itemcodes (which look like '3600df2c' or similar), then 'player.additem itemcode 1' will give you 1 of that item.
my thought is if you're spending that much time to download and install mods and get the console working just to create images, you may as well find a friend who draws and pay them for some sketches. *shrug*
But if that works for the OP, then I hope the results are worth the time!