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The 'unconscious' condition says "You take a –4 status penalty to AC, Perception, and Reflex saves, and you have the blinded and flat-footed conditions. When you gain this condition, you fall prone and drop items you are wielding or holding unless the effect states otherwise or the GM determines you're in a position in which you wouldn't."
None of those effects, of the effects of the nested conditions, affects the fortitude DC, which is what athletics to grapple goes against. Kinda silly.
It's the kind of thing every GM I know would probably house rule in some way on the spot.
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Probably because reducing Fortitude while unconscious would cause more problems than it solved. ("You went to sleep, so the disease will get much worse than if you powered through.") And grappling an unconscious creature is the sort of rarely-relevant edge case that i expect no one was thinking about to do something like reduce fort DC for grappling specifically.
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Technically the GM is supposed to be applying circumstance bonuses and penalties.
I don't require grapple checks against unconscious characters or unattended objects. You want to hold them, OK done. You want to pick them up, OK. It is basically the same. I just let it work.
The lower AC and reflex DC is really there for it you are trying to damage the unconscious character. To ensure they are dead for example. In that context (damaging spell) no change to the Fortitude DC makes sense.
Do the rules say that anywhere? I am not sure.
Technically the GM is supposed to be applying circumstance bonuses and penalties.
I don't require grapple checks against unconscious characters or unattended objects. You want to hold them, OK done. You want to pick them up, OK. It is basically the same. I just let it work.
The lower AC and reflex DC is really there for it you are trying to damage the unconscious character. To ensure they are dead for example. In that context (damaging spell) no change to the Fortitude DC makes sense.
Do the rules say that anywhere? I am not sure.
In a roundabout way, yes they do support that position.
Often, your choices have no immediate risk or consequences. If you’re traveling along a forest path and come across a fork in the trail, the GM will ask, “Which way do you go?” You might choose to take the right fork or the left. You could also choose to leave the trail, or just go back to town. Once your choice is made, the GM tells you what happens next. Down the line, that choice may impact what you encounter later in the game, but in many cases nothing dangerous happens immediately.
But sometimes what happens as a result of your choices is less than certain. In those cases, you’ll attempt a check.
To summarize, if there are no stakes or little chances of failure, there shouldn't probably be a check happening in the first place.
No risk or consequences? No check. Grappling an Unconscious person has little risk and no immediate consequences. Future consequences on the other hand may apply.
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That technicality is wrong (instead of just being nonsensical to adhere to). There are cases where you wouldnuse grapple to grab objects (like complex hazards that could be held in check). Doesn't mean that every object that could be grabbed must be grappled.
The Fortitude save DC for grappling seems like an odd choice, although based on 'not everything Athletics related should hit Reflex' I can understand. But the only reason to roll against grappling the unconscious is if you're one of those groups who enjoys trying to get critical failures. 'Jerome the Bald attempts the grapple and fails. He whines and falls on his rump repeatedly. Sir Moses tries to aid, and fails, and simply slaps Jerome twice and pokes him in the eyes.'
Outside of combat, that should not require a roll.
In the middle of combat on the other hand, the roll could very well represent the attempt to pick up a limp body without interference from other combatants. No, most enemies do not have AoOs, but remember that this is always an abstraction.