Is there a basis--whether RAW, RAI, or general GM good judgment--to determine the order of operations for Leap-related feats?
To give a specific example of a PC in one of my games, a level 17 swashbuckler whose Speed is 60 when he has panache has the following relevant feats: Quick Jump, Powerful Leap, Cloud Jump, and Flamboyant Athlete.
Quick Jump: Long Jump = 1 action
Powerful Leap: Increase distance by 5 feet
Cloud Jump: Triple the distance, plus if you spend additional actions, your maximum jump distance increases by your Speed to maximum distance
Flamboyant Athlete: DC decreases by 10
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Problem 1: Assuming he spends 3 actions on a Long Jump, his maximum distance is 180 feet.** What is the DC of a 180-foot Long Jump?
It seems to me like there are a couple ways to calculate it.
Method 1: DC starts at 180. Cloud Jump triples our distance so 60. Powerful leap gives us 5 extra feet so 55. Flamboyant Athlete reduces DC by 10 so 45.
Method 2: DC starts at 180. Flamboyant Athlete reduces the DC by 10 so 170. Cloud Jump triples the distance so 57. Powerful leap gives us 5 extra feet, so 52.
Method 3: DC starts at 180. Powerful leap gives us 5 extra feet, so 175. Cloud Jump triples distance so 59. Flamboyant Athlete reduces the DC by 10 so 49.
Method 4: DC starts at 180. Powerful leap gives us 5 extra feet, so 175. Flamboyant Athlete reduces DC by 10 so 165. Cloud Jump triples the distance so 55.
All of those methods assume all three can be combined, but Flamboyant Athlete says that it "doesn't combine with other effects that reduce the DC." None of the other feats say they reduce the DC, but functionally it seems like Powerful Leap reduces the DC by 5 and perhaps also Cloud Jump can be said to reduce the DC by one-third. If Flamboyant Leap can be combined with Cloud Jump but not Powerful Leap, then the possible DCs are 57 and 50, and if Flamboyant Leap cannot be combined with either, the possible DCs are 59 and 55.
So it seems like the DC for a 180-foot jump could be 45, 49, 50, 52, 55, 57, or 59.
**Technically his maximum distance is 240 if he is quickened but even in the best case scenario of calculations the DC would be 65 and even rolling a 20 he cannot hit 55, so there wouldn't be any benefit to spending 4 actions on the Long Jump.
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Problem #2:
Finally, the question can be considered from another direction: what is the least distance he could possibly try to Long Jump with 3 actions without having to make a roll as even a 1 is a success?
His Athletics modifier is currently +29. So, if he rolls a 1, he gets a 30, and it is one degree of success worse than it otherwise would be, so we need the DC to be 20 so that the 1 is converting a critical success into a normal success.
Normally, that would be 20 feet, but...
Method 1: -> 60 feet (Cloud Jump), -> 65 feet (Powerful Leap)
Method 2: -> 60 feet (Cloud Jump), -> 70 feet (Flamboyant Athlete)
Method 3: -> 60 feet (Cloud Jump), -> 70 feet (Flamboyant Athlete), -> 75 feet (Powerful Leap)
Method 4: -> 25 feet (Powerful Leap), -> 75 feet (Cloud Jump)
Method 5: -> 25 feet (Powerful Leap), -> 75 feet (Cloud Jump), -> 85 feet (Powerful Leap)
Method 6: -> 30 feet (Flamboyant Athlete), -> 90 feet (Cloud Jump)
Method 7: -> 30 feet (Flamboyant Athlete), -> 90 feet (Cloud Jump), -> 95 feet (Powerful Leap)
Method 8: -> 25 feet (Powerful Leap) -> 35 feet (Flamboyant Athlete), -> 105 feet (Cloud Jump)
So the possible minimum auto-success distances are 65, 70, 75, 85, 90, 95, or 105
feet
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I'm tempted to go with DC 45 for problem #1 and 105 feet for problem #2, since my general principle is that if there is no good reason to prefer one interpretation over another, I default to the interpretation most favorable to the players. But I'm curious if there's some order of operations principle that would dictate a RAW answer, as well as how people would adjudicate this at their tables.