I've made a new plugin available for scaling the results of an Extrude Along Path operation. This allows you to scale the profile along a path for making things like tree limbs, tusks, whips, or anything with a tapering profile.
This is a Windows-only plugin at the moment, but the source code is available for anyone that wishes to compile under a different platform.
Get it at
http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/extpath_scale.html