I'm always up for trying new stat methods. I've done 2d6+6 before and it works out ok. Certainly better than 3d6 but not as good as 4d6 drop lowest. I've even done 3d6+6 drop lowest.
2d6+5 would be ok, but if you're wanting to hard cap starting stats at 17, it's not hard. I've done 4d6 drop lowest with rerolling 18s and anything under 6. I've allowed regular 4d6 drop lowest but put a hard cap on starting higher than an 18 so even if you roll an 18, you can't put a racial bonus there. I've also done 16 + 3d6 x5 with a hard cap of 16 starting out. I do this to promote less common race/class combos.
I've also done point buy +1 and made up random arrays usually with at least a 16.
But whatever method I use, anybody at the table can use anybody's rolls. This almost always keeps the playing field relatively even which is more important to me than whether or not the players get high stats.
Usually, with the people I play with mostly, if somebody rolls TOO good, they throw it out and reroll. If they roll REALLY poorly, I will let them roll 4d6 two more times and use the highest 6 out of 8. This both happened recently when one player rolled 17, 17, 16, 16 and two other numbers higher than 12. She redid it. Another player at the same table rolled a 12 and then 5 numbers under 10 so when they rolled two more, they were like 15 and 16 or something. The rolled array the group ended up going with was only barely better than point buy.
The last time I was a player, that DM made us all roll 4d6 drop lowest twice and choose, but there were no rerolls or redos period. That guy REALLY believes in the random.
