Game mechanics regarding animal companions and the survival skill

I had these questions in my other thread, but I'm thinking I just ought to start a new one, as they both have to do with specific game mechanics, rather than general build and execution advice.

1. My druid is 6th level now. I've been maxing out my spot, listen, and survival, and boosting my wisdom. I also bought myself a spyglass, and crafted an amulet of wisdom. Is there some cutoff to these skills where I'd be better off spending more skill points in other skills instead, such as there is with heal (14), my rogue's appraise skill (19), and my wizard's spellcraft (23)?

2. I read in this thread:

http://www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10160&page=2

that a newly called wolf animal companion would have the same amount of hit dice if summoned by a level 20 druid or by a level 1 druid, and that the extra stats for my animal companion are only given if that companion is alive when my druid levels up to level 4, 7, 10, etc. Is this true? Is there some way for me to test how many hit dice my current animal companion has?

If my druid was level 20 and summoned a new animal companion, would there be any way to train him up to where he should be?

 

Regarding skill points, I'm not sure if there is a list of high DC spot and listen checks in the game. As far as I recall, the Verbobonc quest "what lies beneath" relies on you having a decent skill in either search or spot,but otherwise I think they just affect who gets initiative in fights. Similarly as far as I'm aware survival just gives you increased chance of being able to avoid random encounters when you travel on the World Map. All these things become less important as you level up, since you become more badass than anything you might meet (a band of 20 Hill giants saw me coming, and decided to set an ambush rather than run? Too stupid to live..)
Wisdom is always worth boosting as a Druid, since it affects how many spells you can cast per day, and your saving throw modifiers.
I don't really know about the 'levelling up' your animal companion thing- it's possible that you do only get the benefits if said animal is with you when you level up at specific points (it would seem to be a mechanically simple way for a computer programme to do it, after all). As I said in the other thread, even a boosted animal companion is pretty weak for a higher level druid. It might be a fun roleplaying hook to try to keep Wulfie alive through the whole game, but he's unlikely to be a useful asset for very long. Great as a free extra fighter at low levels, but by the time you are summoning elementals and calling down lightning for the duration of combats, an animal companion is pretty much superceded.

 

PS: you can see how many HP your animal companion has when uninjured, and look at its BAB and attack roll modifiers. Casting Bear's Enduarance and noting the new HP might also help to work out their HD.

 

If you call an animal companion later in the game, after you've reached higher levels you can call a more formidable ally. Wolfie could be a Panda Bear or a Dire Wolf.

 

Or you can take the chicken challenge Select chicken for yout companion and see how long she can survive for

 

How? Where? How?

 

If you click on the blue d20 icon in the bottom right corner, it opens a window that shows the game mechanics. If you click on one of the highlighted bits were your animal companion hits or misses, it will show a breakdown of their attack (roll, plus modifiers) which should let you see their BAB. If you cast Bear's Endurance on someone, they gain +4 (or is it +6?) to Con, which translates to +2 (or +3, if the spell raises Con by 6) HP per hit dice. Mouseover your animal comp to see its current HP.

 

Mousing over my animal companion tells me how many hit points it's missing, or if it is unscathed. I've never seen a hit point total there.

I'll take a look at the rolls history during combat. That seems like a good way of checking.

 

My bad, I miss-remembered about the HP status.