Things crabs are known for: Walking sideways. Grabbing things with pinchers.

Things crabs in DDO do: not those things.


Seriously. I've fought Sidestep Snippey about 100 times so far. He swings his pinchers and hits you(doesn't grab), and his signature attack is charging forward. Despite having "sidestep" in his name, he barely ever does that.

Things crabs are known for: Walking sideways. Grabbing things with pinchers.

Things crabs in DDO do: not those things.


Seriously. I've fought Sidestep Snippey about 100 times so far. He swings his pinchers and hits you(doesn't grab), and his signature attack is charging forward. Despite having "sidestep" in his name, he barely ever does that.

they could have made it a pinch and release animation 

maybe it is a mechanic from the PnP module but I always thought a giant crab smashing holes in a bubble that causes boiling steam to spray all over itself was a little too suicidal and wondered why it was immune to steam.. it should be vulnerable to steam

This area is uncomfortably hot. Though the
relatively narrow passage seems to open out into a
weird, wide cavern filled with flickering light, the
corridor actually continues about 30 feet more
before opening out into some kind of dome. Its
walls and ceiling are not formed of stone; they
appear to be made of luminous water that arches
upward and meets overhead. The hazy images
visible through these watery walls suggest that the
floor of this area is actually a ledge in the middle of
a gigantic, water-filled cave. Perhaps these strange
water-walls are all that prevents the water from
pouring in to flood the dungeon beyond.

This stone ledge juts out over the middle of the boiling
lake, about 50 feet below the ceiling of the cavern and
100 feet above its floor. The naturally luminous water of
the lake provides enough light for the PCs to see
normally throughout the area.
A magical membrane of semisolid water forms a
tunnel and dome that rest atop the ledge, but—as the
flanged doors at area 14 attest—it offers only scant
protection against the fury of the boiling flood beyond.
The membrane has burst before, and it will certainly do
so again—perhaps within seconds of the PCs’ arrival in
this room.
The membrane is soft, resilient, and hot to the touch.
Area spells or intentional attacks can easily puncture it,
sending scalding water rushing to fill the available space.
Membrane Wall: Hardness 3, 3 hit points per 5-
foot-square section.
If a character is foolish enough to puncture the
membrane with a melee weapon, he takes 1d6 points of
fire damage from the initial spray of hot water (Reflex DC
18 half), as does every other creature within 5 feet of the
puncture. After the first spray, the water flows in quickly
as pressure on the outside of the dome squeezes the air
out and collapses the membrane. In 1d4+1 rounds, the
membrane collapses completely, and hot water fills the
hall as far as the first flanged door in area 14.
Any character immersed in the water of the boiling
lake takes 10d6 points of damage per round of contact

The membrane dome is the nest of a
Huge monstrous crab that guards the legacy weapon
Wave. The creature stays at least 5 feet from every wall
of the dome if it possibly can while fighting hard to
repel any and all intruders.