have you tried blender? the character animation tools are very nice and the unwrapping tools are at least on par with modo.

some people hate blender's user interface but in my opinion most of the time a lot of preconception is involved in this. blender isn't really harder to learn than the other complex apps like maya or max. actually i found it a bit easier.

modo can't do character animation yet so you would have to wait for 501 or so if that is important to you.

i have seen many rumors that lightwave slowly is dying. they aren't making much money with it anymore...