Some monsters dont have Athletics or Acrobatics.

[Dr A Gon]

I've noticed a few of these now, and they seem rather helpless to me once grabbed. Some of them might be able to magic themselves out if they're lucky with the opponent attacks of opportunity. Otherwise they can never escape, and they're just done for.

Intentional?

[HammerJack]

This is incorrect. They can use their unarmed attack modifier to escape.

[Taja the Barbarian]

The real issue comes when creatures with the Grab ability but no actual Athletics proficiency tries to grab a character with the Unfettered Halfling feat:

Unfettered Halfling (Feat 1) wrote:

Halfling

Source Core Rulebook pg. 52 2.0
You were forced into service as a laborer, either pressed into indentured servitude or shackled by the evils of slavery, but you've since escaped and have trained to ensure you'll never be caught again. Whenever you roll a success on a check to Escape or a saving throw against an effect that would impose the grabbed or restrained condition on you, you get a critical success instead. Whenever a creature rolls a failure on a check to Grapple you, they get a critical failure instead. If a creature uses the Grab ability on you, it must succeed at an Athletics check to grab you instead of automatically grabbing you.

It's kinda amusing to watch a Marilith try to make a +8 check to grab an end-game character because the authors didn't bother giving it the appropriate skill (Level 17 Fortitude DC could easily be high enough that even a natural 20 won't cut it).

[Dr A Gon]

HammerJack wrote:

This is incorrect. They can use their unarmed attack modifier to escape.

OK I see that now.

Seems like a ssfety net for monsters with missing stats. Is there a standard modifier to apply to go from the armed melee attack to the unarmed? For instance the Fortune Eater monster (obviously with ghost touch as it's incorporeal)? https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1157

[Claxon]

I can't find it now, but isn't there a table that gives you stats for monsters of a certain level (with low/medium/high/extreme) categories that tells you what value a creature should have.

Pick a value off the list (for skills) that feels appropriate and go with it.

[Dr A Gon]

On the subject of ghost touch:

I just saw this in Bestiary 3, the Eunemvro.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1150

It's designed to wrestle undead. Positive energy, and Retributive Suplex.

Sadly it doesn't have ghost touch so it won't be suplexing wraiths. But I'm seriously considering adding that trait so it can.

[thenobledrake]

Dr A Gon wrote:

Seems like a ssfety net for monsters with missing stats.

It's also a safety net for PCs, so that a creature with a grab-related ability that can challenge a character built for it isn't completely impossible for a character not built for it to deal with.

Dr A Gon wrote:

Is there a standard modifier to apply to go from the armed melee attack to the unarmed? For instance the Fortune Eater monster (obviously with ghost touch as it's incorporeal)? https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=1157

For most NPCs, just using whatever their attack bonus is listed as (subtracting only if there are potency runes mentioned) is a workable solution since NPCs are not discreetly built with varying proficiency levels.