I usually can't kill Desann any way at all without cheating.

His Force powers are maxed out to truly ridiculous levels, and his one-handed Strong style attack is way faster than what you can do back at him. And there's no Absorb or Protect like there is in Jedi Academy--it's one of the most unfair fights I've ever seen. I've even tried the column thing but could never make it work.

I tend to cheat on the Force powers, because it makes the game more fun. I usually use a mod I found called More Reborn, which causes many more enemies throughout the game to be Dark Jedi, so it's much more exciting and interesting.

There's another mod that lets you play the Outcast levels in Academy, so you can use the dual-sabre and other improvements, which is really neat.