Like characters in most fantasy role-playing games, characters that explore the Lands of Legend are likely to encounter foes that are best overcome at the point of a sword or spear. And whilst combat is often an 'easy' obstacle for a GM to throw at the characters and should not be the focus of the adventuring challenge, there are many ways in which the basic rules of combat in Dragon Warriors can be enhanced and/or applied to different combat encounters, such as naval combat, mounted combat, and so on.
In my own house rules, combat, like all secondary ability score tests, is resolved using 2d10, not 1d20, although the success criterion is the same: equal to or below the difference between Attack and Defence scores.