I finally got around to playing all the survivors through the Commonwealth scenario. These are my thoughts on the individual survivors and I'm curious to see what others think of them. I've ranked them from worst to best.

5) Super Mutant - Gaining 1 xp per rad is poor at the start of the game but becomes fairly useless later on when you need more. Strength doesn't help much since it rarely seems to come up in the initial encounter cards. This seems to be the survivor you give to an experienced player to help level the playing field against new players.

4) Ghoul - Being Vilified/Idolized brings with it some fun moments but neither has been much of a hindrance or a help. So I'm neutral on starting the game Vilified. Starting with less Hit Points hurts. Later in the game, it feels like less of a hindrance when other players have a few rad points. Depending on how the map ends up you may have a few beneficial short cuts you can take that other players won't. Perception comes up fairly often so he does have a good starting special stat.

3) Wastelander - Starts with one of the best weapons in the game and you can get a huge advantage over others if you are lucky enough to get Strength early. This one just seems average if you never pull Strength. Agility seems to fall between Strength and Perception with initial encounters.

2) Brotherhood Outcast- Armor is a big deal in the game and having 2 armor is fantastic. The loss of movement hurts but not as bad as I thought it would be. You can mitigate the loss with caps and a lot of quests can be done at any ruin or city. Best to let other players explore so you can save your actions for movement. Starting with Intelligence is also a huge bonus since it comes up so often in the initial encounters.

1) Vault Dweller - Starting with 1 armor is nice but being able to add more apparel is insane. By mid game you will often be on par with or better than the Brotherhood Outcast, Being able to reroll Endurance skill checks isn't very useful for initial encounters but it is fantastic if you are using drugs. The starting Luck comes up often in a lot of the initial encounters. This survivor almost feels broken when compared to the Super Mutant and Ghoul.

5) Super Mutant - good because he can level up fast early on. Remember your perks - Fortune Hunter, Gun Nut, Armourer, Iron Stomach and the one that gives you all your health. These can be more important than gaining a new SPECIAL token.

4) Ghoul - I know people who have banned the ghoul. He's just too good later on and too easy to heal up. However there are some Quests/Encounters he can't do because he can't suffer radiation.

3) Wastelander - He's OK.

2) BoS OC - Armour is big but don't forget you can unequip it so you can move normally.

1) Vault Dweller - He's a good around character.

"4)"

wait,...so you mean there are some quests that require you to take rad damage as a condition to complete them?

and how exactly, does that prevent the ghoul from completing the quest?

I would assume that he still gets exposed to the rads, they just heal him instead of damaging him, no?

does the quest say something like "you must have at least 3 rad damage" or does it say "take 3 rad damage"?

I've never seen a quest that required you to have rad damage. But I haven't read through all the cards either.

Everything I've seen was take rad damage. So needing to have rad damage could be a misunderstanding. It would be a huge oversight to make it impossible for one survivor to ever complete a quest.