Character Concepts you wished would work in D&D?

[Man_Over_Game]

So the focus should be Int not wisdom, hence why I ruled out ranger.

Ranger uses wisdom rather than int. Does not come across as a scholar at all. Now of course you could still prioritise Int over wisdom, but that isnt the concept being supported - it is bending the system to produce an underwhelming character.

I don't think too many DMs would complain about a Ranger using Intelligence instead of Wisdom. Heck, most of the Ranger features revolve around knowledge more than observation, as do several of the subclasses (Horizon Walker, Monster Slayer).

If that's something that interests you, and you want to rule out any multiclassing problems that might come up, the Prestige Options link in my signature covers these ideas and concerns surrounding them. Pretty thoroughly, I'd like to think.

A rogue that is thug like and can use non-finesse weapons.

It has that, too. Didn't take much.
Change Sneak Attack to be limited to melee weapons instead of Finesse/Ranged, gives Medium Armor and Martial weapons, change all mentions of the word Dexterity to Constitution (so you're bulky, making you resistant to poison and being tossed around instead of dodging explosions. A Sailor, not a Ninja). Sneak Attack bumped to a 1d8, but still requires Advantage or an adjacent ally. You still pick your subclass as normal.

Although, on the Arcane Archer mention, I feel like that could easily be done with Ranger and a few Druid levels. Land->Coast for 3 levels with a Ranger character goes a long way.