Brownie

A brownie is a small, magic-casting, item-stealing fairy-like creature appearing in SLASH'EM. It is essentially a spellcasting nymph, although it lacks the seduction attack that nymphs have.

Strategy
Brownies are a monster that is generally best left ignored. They are always generated asleep, like all nymphs, and so can be safely left alone. When awoken, they are fast spellcasters who are quite often able to cast spells such as aggravate monster and curse items, to say nothing of their ability to steal your items and then teleport away. They also have many more hit dice than the typical nymph, having a base level of 8 instead of 3. It is well worth checking if that is a mountain nymph or a brownie, as the brownie is truly best left alone.

If you do find yourself confronting an awake brownie, the best strategy is to use ranged weapons and/or Elbereth. They are not a great threat, particularly since they cannot steal more than one item at a time, lacking a seduction attack. They are simply not worth the trouble to kill, since they can be left alone, and killing them entails the risk of having your items cursed or stolen.