A character would take like 3 days at most when it comes to creating it not modifying it for the game to make it intractable, and I've modeled a lot of characters (mostly human stuff) and cosmetics. Drawing a concept character would probably take the longest.
As others have said, 3 days is a very quick turnaround for a completed model - 3 days and you maybe get the concept completed and beginning work on the model in most cases.
It'd be fair to say around two to four weeks is reasonable for most characters from a full time group, who have a lot of experience in 3D modelling, animating, rigging, and texturing. Maybe a few characters could reasonably take 2 months or more if a special system needs to be implemented for them specifically.
This game (as well as virtually every other subscription-supported game) suffers from the same disease as far as I'm concerned - the monthly income from patreon or whatever other platform is just too good to give up. Once they release the 1.0 on Steam or whatever other platform, they're going to need to provide *some* reason for people to keep giving them money. Easiest way to do this is to just *never plan for a release*, and push a 1.0 out the door once it's clear supporters are getting (understandably) annoyed their promised 1.0 on steam at a one-time fixed price has not happened.
