Stealing from the Water Dragon Lair

[Tyrnyx]

So I tried creating monsters all around me with a wand of monster creation then picked up an item. Shys teleported next to me and murdered me which was expected. It appeared the Shys replaced one of the summoned monsters? It is possible that one of the monsters drowned before I picked up the item and I just didn't notice. Or she moves everything out of the way to get next to you. I'm not sure.

So, Grond (as I assume you're the only person who knows) are there effective methods for stealing from the cave nowadays? I think darkness used to mitigate but doesn't anymore?

[Cactus]

Darkness should still be helpful to some extent. Not as good as pre-1.2.0 obviously, but at least she can't see in the dark, so you can expect less attacks coming your way. Then set up some wand of poison bouncing maybe? Good luck!
Btw what item were you trying to steal? I usually never bother...

[Grond]

These days it's actually impossible to pick up items while she's on the level. As far as killing her, darkness, dragon-slaying ammo, or ball spells (besides fire) are the way to go. If you have staff of volcano summoning, you can surround her with magma and attack safely with missiles or ball spells. If you're trying to kite her, you can cast Slow Monster before angering her.

Luring her off the level is possible, but I don't know of any consistent and practical way of doing it. The typical strat for stationary monsters of having a companion attack and then teleporting it away doesn't work very well because of the layout of the cave. Another idea would be to teleport her directly to the stairs room. You can improve your odds by spawning gremlins in the center room, but it's still a long-shot unless you commit a massive amount of resources to filling in the level with walls/doors.

[Tyrnyx]

Darkness should still be helpful to some extent. Not as good as pre-1.2.0 obviously, but at least she can't see in the dark, so you can expect less attacks coming your way. Then set up some wand of poison bouncing maybe? Good luck!
Btw what item were you trying to steal? I usually never bother...

It was more an experiment than a real attempt. I had a level 14 Grey Elf Archer - probably would have won since I would've gotten the trident at 16 - but I had just killed a cat and was bitter and I saw the wand and I thought I'd give it a go. It was bracers of regeneration that I was picking up - I didn't expect to live.

These days it's actually impossible to pick up items while she's on the level.

I did notice that the bracers didn't make it into my backpack after looking at my items on death.