Three dots is the minimum for weapons and armor, so that's what I usually go with... but then, I usually don't have my characters rely much on equipment. If you want the cards to be a significant part of your character's story and have a lot of power to master, you might want four or five. Otherwise, three dots is probably fine.<br/><br/>Alternately, you could decide what other Merits you want first and see how many points are left over... I ended up being pretty short on points after everything I needed.