In Anima, I know that there are non-human races. But are you supposed to play a human?  I know in any roleplaying game you are not "supposed" to do anything. But it seems in this, that it is highly reccomended that you play a human. 

Could someone clear that up for me?

You are still basically human, but with a non-human soul. So you become sorta like a hybrid human. You gain all the abilities listed under the Nephilim you are choosing while pure humans have nothing on them.

But with all of the bonuses that Nephilim get, why would it ever be advantageous to be human? (an actual question, not sarcasm =] )

In fact, playing a non-human character, like a Daimah for example, grants you specials talents and/or surnatural abilities BUT you lose XP at the end of each game session.

Having an immortal soul has a cost I suppose...

If you prefer to play a human character, you won't have both these abilities and XP lost.

Well aside from the experience point penalty its mostly a social penalty. Non humans are by their nature outcasts from society at large and are often hunted or persecuted. Depending on the type of game that you're playing this could be a big disadvantage forcing non-human players to constantly be hiding their nature, or it could be fairly meaningless it sort of falls to the GM to decide how he wants to play the situation.

harleysa said:

Yes, that's true, but only for pure races (ie at the end of the book).

Nephilim are humans, the unique non-human thing is their soul. Physical modifications are very very discrete.

Anima Studio once said that (almost) no occultist in the world could be able to make the difference between an human and a Nephilim (maybe except for poor Jayans who can have primitive horns sometimes) just looking at him. There are very few people aware of the existence of Nephilims.

You won't risk anything being a Nephilim, you won't be seen as something else than a human being (maybe with a strange look^^).

I think the only mechanical reason not to play Nephilim is the experience penalty. I guess the Duk'zarist have an actual penalty with the metal allergy thing.

Other than the other role-playing issues already mentioned it's also important to remember that Nephilim are supposed to be rare. Exceptionally rare. In a group of 4 to 6 player characters the statistical chance of one being Nephilim is already bad; two or more is an incredibly improbable meeting. Sure they might search around for other people like themselves and they might be extra likely to stick together if they find each other but the chances of two or more Nephilim meeting in the same place are really that bad.

As GM I'm pretty much just generally discouraging too many Nephilim. One player (out of six) has already made one, and another chose human. Of the four remaining I probably won't even allow more than one additional Nephilim. The entire point of Nephilim and the reality of the setting basically require such a limitation; the players shouldn't want to upset that balance any more than the GM wants them to. Things would go from interesting to corny in pretty short order if everybody played Nephilim.

You're right ^^

And, the simple fact of knowing about the existence of Nephilim is a great knowledge, so, some DM should want their players to ignore it in order to make them discover secrets steps by steps. So a few Nephilim can be better for some people.

I personnaly didn't allow Nephilims for my first game table, because I knew if my players knew about it, they all would want to play one.

But, one of my players create a perfect Ebudan without knowing about it, so, I told her I could give her a "special power" and she is actually an Ebudan who doesn't really know what she is (the player and the character don't know). So, one Nephilim out of 4 players is a good rate I don't wan't to be changed ^^

Yeah Nephilim are supposed to be rare and I normally play with 4-6 people in an RPG so if you want a Nephilim in the party to mix things up but the party members fight over it then you can decide randomly by using the following tables I made up based on percent dice:

4 Players:                                               5 players:                              6 players:

0-25% = 1st player                               0-20% = 1st                         0-16% = 1st

26-50% = 2nd player                           21-40% = 2nd                     17-33% = 2nd

51-75% = 3rd player                            41-60% = 3rd                      34-50% = 3rd

76-99%  = 4th player                           61-80% = 4th                       51-67% = 4th

                                                                 81-99% = 5th                      68-83% = 5th

                                                                                                                84-99% = 6th

The six players category is a little tricky but I balanced it as best as I could

 i don't have the book yet.. ( hopefully getting to order it soon) but wouldn't one "special race" amidst regular humans give an odd sort of power gap between the two?

They are just humans with a little special things, including flaws, of course, mainly they get less XP than others.