# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > D&D 5e/Next > DM Help Upkeep cost for super mounts

## Mastikator

I'm planning on introducing ride-able, buy-able super mounts, aka hippogriff, griffon, wyvern, dragonnel, that sort of thing- to my players. The is plenty of help online for what they should cost to buy, but upkeep seems pretty sparse. In fact my googling ability has yielded no fruit in this regard.

My initial idea is to base it off the horse's feed, costing 5cp per day. A magical flying mount would then instead cost 100 x cr of a horse's upkeep. So a hippogriff costs 5 x 100 x 1 cp = 5gp/day, they mostly eat fresh meat and high caloric fruits, and importantly they eat A LOT.
A griffon/dragonnel = 10gp/day
A wyvern = 30gp/day

My question for the forum is:
Are there any guides I'm missing?
Is the price reasonable?

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## Zhorn

> Is the price reasonable?


How many chickens per day would it take to feed a creature of that size?

Chickens cost 2 cp each

If not chickens, then how about goats?

Goats cost 1 gp each.

Meater creatures?

Pigs cost 3 gp each
Donkeys cost 8 gp each
Cows cost 10 gp each
Oxen cost 15 gp each

Though to a predator type animal, meat is meat, and they wouldn't normally be eating a full beast each day.
Take lions for example, while they on average eat about ~11-17.5 pounds of meat a day (5-8 kg), more usually it's one BIG meal of 110 pounds (50kg) of meat once a week.

For my players, they currently have a pet owlbear. Feed for it comes in many forms, but on average it's probably only costing 1-2 gp a day, less so if they are hunting or feeding it meat from the monsters they fight when in the wild.

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## Mastikator

Flying - and expected to fly on a near daily basis, would drastically increase the dietary requirement. A dolphin eats 4-6% of their body mass every day. A hawk on the other hand eats 12-15%. A griffon is a large flying creature, if expected to fly 4-8 hours/day then it may require a whole goat every day.

Thanks for the help though I think I should half the cost. 5 x 50 x cr. A hippogriff can make do on 25sp, a griffon needs 5gp. A wyvern needs 15gp worth of food.

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## Zhorn

Constant flying plus bearing the weight of a rider, sure that would increase a bit, but I still think you are overshooting the mark.

We could also go by some other official references;
DMG p111 has the Food and Water Needs table.
A large creature need 4 pounds of food a day.

The Dungeon Master Screen: Wilderness Kit (Dec 2020)
the Food and Water Needs table it has gives a food and water cost of 2 gp per short cycle (1 day)

A quick google search on the average amount of meat from a goat is ~40 pounds.

2 goats worth of meat is only 2 gp a day, and thematically is enough meat to keep a hard working mount excessively past the 'well fed' mark.

I'd say drop the custom CR multiplier formula.
No need to reinvent the wheel on this one.

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## stoutstien

I wouldn't over think it. Id just say 1D4 gold a day and call it good.

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## Sigreid

While I'm the type of person who will track arrows, I wouldn't want to track this.  Instead, I'd tell them they have to update their weekly upkeep to aristocratic to cover all the things involved in maintaining the mount.

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## hiptobecubic

> While I'm the type of person who will track arrows, I wouldn't want to track this.  Instead, I'd tell them they have to update their weekly upkeep to aristocratic to cover all the things involved in maintaining the mount.


Exactly this. Also the cost of maintaining a war-capable animal and all its equipment is not just food. The aristocratic upkeep fits the theme better.

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