I just taped from the front lip of a stage last night, my first experience of the sort. I used my regular 'ol manfrotto stand, although a small drum stand would have been perfect. I'll have to look into grabbing a cheap one. I ran about 2' high. I would have run a bit higher, but I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb, as my manfrotto/shure/at shockmount contraption was fairly beastly
I think 2-3' is a good compromise that shouldn't get you into trouble.
I ran DIN, I'm very pleased with the results... I would probably have chosen ORTF if the stage was wider than the 4 musicians I was trying to accomplish. As it was, my DIN basically pointed each mic at the outside musician's cabinets. Seemed like a good choice.
Level adjustment was more difficult to get right.. The bass and guitar cabs really have a much larger dynamic range when you're that close. Best watch carefully until you get the feel of it
I ended up running a bit more conservative than I usually do, as I was playing with 24 bits and didn't feel the need to run so hot. That being said, it was lucky I did: max level was 0db for the left channel and -.7db for the right!