You can make multiple characters, just click new game and then when you click continue in the future it'll so all your created ones.
As for fist specific help, come onto the discord. There's always people willing to help with stances. Barrier can get stacked really high when you start combining various multipliers, like buffs to power, fist boost, and crit. In fact late qi condensation you should be able to max out your barrier each round. Again, how to get there requires all sorts of optimisations. Ripple Fist is also a very strong buff, hence it doesn't have a huge amount of techniques that can build it. But you can get it on masteries, which can help with stacking it fast.